Venom's Frenzy
by Cerabellum's Matrix
Summary: Kenzie is an arachnophobic photographer who just wants to get through her days in New York alive and spiderless; an action she sadly finds more than diffucult to accomplish. When she finds old friend Eddie Brock unconscious in a river bank, she soon finds that her fear of spiders will need to be quickly dealt with. Eddie Brock/VenomXOC Read and Review, please.
1. The Hangover

I don't own anything Spiderman. All outside characters used in this fiction are mine...MINE... O.O

...

Kenzie woke up with a splitting headache that reached from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She tried to open her eyes, but every time she did, some blinding light just made her slam them shut again.

"No...more...alcohol..." she said bitterly as she turned her aching head face-first into the worn pillow. Last night just happened to be her twenty-first birthday, and she did what any other college student would do.

She got fucking shitfaced.

Kenzie couldn't remember how many drinks she had before her vision went black, and frankly, she didn't care. All she cared about right now was silence, and darkness; the only two things keeping her brain from splitting open like a damned walnut.

Sadly, her phone wasn't at all sympathetic, and it rang loud and clear through her ears as greeting to this wonderful morning full of-

"Work...dammit..." she groped her nightstand, eyes still closed, until she felt the infernal cellular device and snatched it up. Barely opening one eye, she peeked at the number. "Jameson, you sick, twisted bastard, you..." she muttered. She knew he would yell at her, his voice muffled by the cigar that he would surely have in his big mouth. Gritting her teeth, she pressed the little green key and waited for the booming calls of war against hippies in the town square or greedy politicians not responding properly to his questions.

"Marks! Where the hell are you? We got a story, here!" Kenzie kept the phone at a distance as he continued his rant about some event somewhere sometime last night. She wasn't paying attention, really, until he said the name Spiderman.

She blinked when he finished.

"Wait, Jonah, Spiderman is Parker's job, not mine. I handle the science crap." she said, confused. His exasperated sigh of utter annoyance followed her statement.

"_Parker_ is out _sick_ for the day! Some crap about a cold or something!" he said. "Anyway, get down here to the bugle so we can do a run-over on this story in person. I wanna make sure you're listening when I'm talking to you!" he hung up. Kenzie stared as the phone showed on it's screen 'call ended'.

"Peter Parker, I am going to kill the crap out of you, so help me God..." she said. Her headache became worse at the thought of his name and she groaned in aggravation. Why did the only Spidey photographer in New York have to be sick when Spidey is crawling around and doing spider stuff. Kenzie shivered; she hated spiders, and the thought of a humanoid one just creeped her out to the extreme.

For about five seconds, she lay still, enjoying every last moment she was spending in her comfy bed. After that, she got up and looked painfully around for her dresser.

"Should probably shower first..." she muttered, and smiled at the thought of warm water hitting her pained skull. It would be great.

Ten minutes later, she was drying her long, ash-colored hair with her blow dryer. Even blow-dried, her hair still curled into long ringlets. She was doomed to look like an emo Shirly Temple for her entire miserable life. She leaned over and checked her face for anything weird. Only some slightly dark circles shadowed under her bright green eyes, and the usual light freckles dusted over her cheeks.

After applying some makeup, black eyeshadow and red lipstick, she walked naked into her room to change into clean clothing. A few moments of rummaging through her dresser, and she pulled out a black tank-top and some tattered grey skinny jeans.

"Perfect." she smiled to herself. She was only a photographer. All the stupid business attire crap was for the office people, which she was more than happy to not be a part of. She laughed inwardly as she remembered what Eddie Brock liked to say about office people; 'Turtles too obsessed with their shells of an office to get out and enjoy life'. "Maybe I'll go visit him at the lab today..." she said. He hadn't talked to her at all yesterday or last night to wish her happy birthday, at least she didn't remember talking to him. Hmm...

"He's been 'off' lately..." she said, and frowned, remembering how distant he had been for the past few weeks. Peter was distant, to, a little while before Eddie was. "Maybe it's that cold that Jonah was talking about..." she muttered when she was finished dressing. She grabbed her phone and looked at her contacts with half a mind to call Eddie and ask if he was sick. She then looked at the clock. 7:30 a.m..

Yeah, she would call him later.

Grabbing a jacket and placing her phone in one of its pockets, Kenzie left for work, headache still intact. She would listen to Jonah yell and gripe about some thing Spiderman was involved with, and then she would have to go out and get some pictures of the supposed wreckage he supposedly caused and didn't help at all with.

Lovely.

"I have a feeling today will be interesting..."

...

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but it's just to introduce the character. Next ones will be longer, I promise. :D Review please. I like comments and opinions on my work.


	2. Odd Job

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." Kenzie dragged herself through some thorned bushes to reach the wreck site that officials were closing off to further inspect. Far off, reporters and photographers in business suits crowded behind a barrier of yellow tape. Kenzie smirked at them as she continued on her painful path. "Too afraid to get their nice clothes dirty. What a bunch of noobs..." she said, and yelped when a stick jabbed her in the thigh. She gave it a dirty look. "Perv..."

When she finally escaped the onslaught of evil shrubbery, she scanned over the area. Sharp fragments of metal littered the ground, and some fires still burned in various places in the charred grass. A busted car lay in a crumpled mess towards the back, and looked like it just went through a can crusher.

Kenzie remembered what Jonah had told her an hour before coming here. He wanted images of everything the Spiderman destroyed, and they needed to be fantastic enough to have him chased out of New York for good. Kenzie snorted.

Yeah right. From the footage she saw from last night, she figured everyone would side with Spidey, since he was saving, instead of destroying. She picked her camera up and snapped a picture of the car from a distance, thinking about the real reason for all of this. The large, monster-like...thing...that obviously had it out for New Yorks masked hero.

As she stepped closer to the car, keeping out of anybody's line of vision, she felt her foot stick on something. She looked down, and jumped.

"Ew, _yuuuuuuuuck_!" she wrinkled her nose at the black gunk that was clinging to the bottom of her combat boot. She reached down and poked it. It felt almost like wire, but softer. "And stickier. _Gross._" she said, and wiped her foot on the dirt, trying to remove the nasty substance.

"I thought the web things deteriorated after about an hour..." se frowned, and decided to take a picture of the black webbing. After that, a thought popped into her brain.

"Eddie might like to look at this..." she muttered, and carefully picked a chunk of the web from the mass with the tips of her fingers. She placed it in one of her camera case compartments, and walked on. She noticed more black webbing as she kept walking, and saw that it was indeed breaking down. "My sample will be dust by the time I get it to Eddie..." she said sadly. Maybe he would be able to work with it still. When she was at the car, she looked around inside for anything cool to take a picture of or snag as a souvenir.

Nope. Nothing.

"Wait a sec..." she peered closer at the seats and noticed a red leather bag with the letters M.J. written fancily on it in gold. She smiled. "Mary forgot something when she exited with Spidey, haha." she reached in and grabbed it, intending to give to Peter to give to Mary Jane when she saw him next.

"But first," she said as she took a shot of the inside of the car before leaving. "I'm gonna make him buy me donuts for making me haul my ass out here..." he may be sick, but for Kenzie, a cold was no excuse to shove your work on others. Resting the bag over her shoulder, Kenzie turned to leave the site.

"Is that yours, miss?" said a voice. Kenzie jumped at the sudden voice and turned back around, thinking she was caught by one of the cops patrolling the area.

It was Spiderman.

Kenzie's eyes widened as she stared at the man dressed in red and blue. Two large white eyes looked back at her questioningly.

"Uhh..." she said dumbly. She felt creeped out, as if she were looking at a giant daddy long leg.

"Cat got your tongue?" he said when she said nothing else. He sounded amused. Kenzie frowned, and swallowed her fear.

"No, you just surprised me, is all." she said, and quickly took a shot of him with her camera. "And now I got payback." Spiderman cocked his head to the side.

"Where's the usual guy? Parker?" he asked. Kenzie huffed.

"Stupid guy called in sick, and now the editor in chief is hassling me about getting shots of the wreck site. This stuff isn't my area of expertise. It's Petey's." Spiderman nodded.

"Saw him last night while I was fighting Venom. Kid almost got squashed like a bug, he was so close to the action. He makes me worried sometimes." he said. Kenzie nodded.

"Yeah, but his obsession with the bizzare is what makes him good at what he does. No one else would have the balls to go near that giant monster thing you fought last night." she said. It was the truth. No photographer had ever been able to capture Spiderman on the camera like Peter Parker. When it came to his job, he was more serious than the black plague.

"Yup. You need a lift out of here?" he asked. Kenzie almost refused with all capital letters, but remembered the thorned bushes, and decided to take his offer.

"Yeah, I guess..." she said warily. Spiderman wrapped his arm around her waist and she wrapped her arm over his neck.

"Hold on." he said.

"Don't even have to tell me once." she said, and they were in the air. Another thing Kenzie hated, almost as much as spiders.

Heights.

As they swung over the thorned bushes, Kenzie regretted not taking the long way. When they finally landed, he released her. She was shaking lightly from the ordeal, and he laughed.

"You look like M.J. On her first time in the air."

"I could understand why." she muttered, and looked at the red bag. "Now I gotta get this to her." she said.

"I'm sure that would be appreciated."

"See you around, man. Thanks for the trip."

"No problem."

With that, he was gone, swinging off somewhere before she could get another shot.

"How the hell does Parker keep up with that crazy bastard?" she reached in her pocket to take out her cell to call Jonah, but felt something else next to it. Curiously, she pulled out a little piece of paper. It read; 'Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman'.

"Pfft. Wow, dude. Overdoing it a bit, aren't we?" she asked, and kept the paper as a souvenir. She took out her phone and called Jonah to report her findings as she walked back to her motorcycle.

Back at the bugle, she handed the freshly printed photos of her findings to Jonah, who was screaming into the phone at his wife.

"What the hell? I told you no! No! No! NO! Fine! Get the dog, just make sure it bites! Our neighbor needs a good chomp in the ass! I love you! Bye!" he said, and slammed the phone down. He looked over the pictures, glee in his beady eyes. "Great! Better than great! Now we got dirt on this Spider-freak! What is this!" he pointed to the picture of black webbing.

"It's web from that Venom guy that Spiderman fought last night. Thought it would be interesting for the people to see what exactly this guy uses as weaponry." she said. Jonah smiled, his cigar held between his teeth.

"You got brains, kid! You get every last little slimy detail. I like it! Parker might have competition!" he exclaimed, and pressed a button on his receiver. "Marge! Get this kid her check! And where the hell is Parker!"

"He's sick, sir. You know that..." said the flat voice of the pretty receptionist on the receiver.

"Marks isn't sick! Call 'im and tell 'im that!" he said.

"Yes, sir..."

"Good!" he took his hand from the receiver and looked at Kenzie. "What the hell are you still doing here? Go take pictures of stuff!" Kenzie understood why poor Marge had such a flat voice. Having to put up with Jonah all day, one could reasonably lose all caring.

"Yes, sir..." she said, mimicking Marge, and left.

When she reached her motorcycle, she put on her jacket and helmet. For a moment, she sat, wondering what she should do. She had no college classes today, and she didn't feel like staying at home.

"I'll go to the lab and see if the doc has got something fun cooking." she said, and revved the cycle to life, then sped down the road towards the lab of Curt Connors.

When she arrived, she walked inside in nearly a hurry to see if Eddie was there. The large room was empty, however, save for Dr. Connors himself. He was looking over some test tubes, and seemed a bit agitated.

"Yo, doc. Anything fun for me to take pictures of?" she asked, holding up her camera and smiling. He looked at her, and she was shocked to see how tired he seemed. Dark circles shadowed under his eyes, and his blond hair was a bit shaggy. "Uh, is this a bad time?" she asked.

"Oh, no, Kenzie. Everything is fine. It's just that I've been up since early this morning, worrying about that Venom character." he said, and leaned against the table. "What brings you here?"

"The usual work mixed with a smidgen of utter boredom." she said. Connors gave a weak smile.

"Yes, well, I'm sorry, but Brock isn't here today." he said. Kenzie felt her bright expression droop a bit, and hoped Connors didn't notice.

"Oh, well, then maybe I can give this gunk to you." she said, and opened the compartment where she kept the black web. It had indeed turned to dust, but maybe he could still figure something out.

"What is it?" Connors asked, peering at the substance.

"It's what's left of the Venom guy's web. I snagged a piece while taking pictures of the site." she said.

"Interesting. Maybe I could use this to figure out how to deal with this villain..."

"That would be great." Kenzie said, and shivered at the thought of the hulking beast terrorizing the city for the rest of her days. Connors took a vial and tipped the substance from the phone case into it. He capped it, and set it on an empty rack.

"Thank you. It'll help me take my mind off things."

"Things like what, doc?"

"Well, that monster was at his most ravenous last night, and tore up a lot of the city, including the construction site."

"Yeah? It'll all get fixed. Don't worry." Kenzie tried to reassure him, and patted his shoulder.

"Perhaps, but that isn't what I'm referring to. Brock hasn't called in since before that incident yesterday, and I haven't been able to get ahold of him yet." he said. Kenzie thought about this for a moment, and her eyes widened.

"Y-you don't think he's hurt, do you?" she asked. She was beginning to panic, and Connors could see it in her eyes. He rested his hands on her shoulders.

"Of course not, Kenzie. I'm sure he's fine. It's just I worry too much, and I'm sorry for making you worry as well."

"Kay..." she said, her mind resting a bit at his words, but the thought still nagged at her. It made sense. A lot happened last night, and the number of reported injured was a good size. Seventy-eight people. Eddie could be one of those. She clenched her jaw.

She needed to call him.

"Well, doc, I best be off. Jonah might need me since Peter is out sick." she said. Connors smiled politely.

"Yes, he called in about that. Sounded terrible. Hope he gets better soon so he can help out again. I'll see you later, miss Marks."

"Yup, and get some sleep, Connors. You look horrible." at this, Connors laughed.

"I'll try."

Back outside, and sitting on her motorcycle, Kenzie grabbed her phone and quickly dialed Eddie's number. She placed the phone by her ear, and listened to it ring.

And ring.

And ring.

And ring,

'We're sorry, the number you have dialed cannot be completed. Voice mailbox is full. Goodbye.'

Click.

Kenzie took a shaky breath and tried again. She got the same robotic voice. Each time she tried, she failed.

"Coincidence. He's just out and he forgot his phone. That's it." she said quietly. She tried to think of where he would be at this time. "Peter's house?" she asked, and dialed Parker's number.

"Hello?" an old woman's voice said kindly.

"Hey, May, it's Kenzie. Is Peter home?" Kenzie asked, trying to sound casual.

"Oh, dear, are you okay? You sound worried." May said. Leave it to May to figure everything out.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm just wondering where Eddie is. I was hoping he might be over there?"

"I'm sorry, dear. He's not in-oh, there's Peter. Peter, dear. It's one of your little friends. She sounds worried. Here he is dear."

"Thank you, May."

"Hey, which of my little friends is this?" Peter said. Connors was right. He did sound sick. He was either really, really sick, or completely faking it.

"Peter, it's Kenzie." she said.

"Oh, right! Yeah, sorry, my hearing's all muffled from this cold...flu...thing.." he said. "What's up?"

"Well, first you don't show up for work and I have to cover your Spider pictures for you..."

"Oh, man, I'm sorry. Were you successful?"

"Yeah. Bug-head even gave me a lift."

"That's cool."

"It wasn't. I hate spiders."

"Is that why you sound so worried?"

"No, it's Eddie." she said. The silence on the other end of the phone was eerie.

"Yeah." he said, his voice off. "What about him?"

"I can't find him, and he hasn't called in to Dr. Connors' lab to say he was sick, and we can't contact him at all. I was hoping he might be visiting you, but apparently not."

"No. Why would he visit me?" Peter almost sounded bitter. Kenzie furrowed her brow.

"Because you're bros, dumbass. He always used to visit when you were sick. And he even gave you a noogie to remind you not to get sick again..." she said, like she needed to remind Peter about one of his best friends. He really was sick, if he couldn't remember that...

"Yeah, well, he didn't visit this time around, since I'm not bald in one spot of my head." Peter tried to joke. His voice still sounded bitter, withdrawn.

"Well, alright, whatever. Call me if you see him."

"Yeah."

"And I have Mary Jane's bag from last night. When you come back to work, tell me, so I can give it to you."

"How did you get her bag?"

"She left it in that car that Spiderman saved her from last night, and I did some digging this morning, thanks to you."

"Cool. I gotta go. Aunt May want's to take my temperature."

"Alright, bye." Kenzie hung up and stuffed he phone back in her pocket.

Son no one knew where Eddie was.

Fucking perfect.


	3. Detective Work

Kenzie knocked on the door, half knowing she wouldn't get an answer. It still helped to try. She stood outside of Eddie's apartment, drenched. On her way over, it began to rain, and she was currently hating that she decided to buy a motorcycle instead of a car.

"Damn those motorcycles for being so fucking sexy..." she muttered, and knocked harder on the door.

No answer.

"Dammit, Eddie..." she whispered, and slammed the door with her fist in anger.

It popped open.

Kenzie blinked, and looked at her fist.

For a second, she felt awesome. For someone as thin as her, she could be powerful when she wanted to be.

All good feelings were pushed down, though, as she looked back to the door. Should she go in? Of course. For all she knew he could be a bloated corpse sitting in the bath tub. She shook her head to rid the gruesome thought and pushed the door open. She stepped inside and flicked the switch.

Everything was fine. No signs of anything broken or messed up. All clean, like Eddie liked to keep it. Kenzie stepped through, inspecting everything with her photographer's skill. If there was even one thing wrong, she would find it. She looked through the living room, the kitchen, his bedroom, and his bathroom.

She felt like a total creeper.

Nothing was wrong. It was all normal.

"Weird..." she walked back outside, careful not to move anything out of place, and closed the door behind her. She leaned against the wall and looked up at the ceiling.

Where the hell was he?

"Excuse me." someone said from down the hall. Kenzie leaned her head over lazily to see who was talking. It was an old man, and he was looking from behind his own door at her drenched self in a rather uptight way, like trash like her shouldn't be in his building.

"Yeah?" she said, and was surprised that her voice cracked. Was she really going to cry?

Great...

"Are you new to the building?" the old man asked, his nose in the air.

"I don't live here..."

"May I ask why you are here, then?"

"You may.." she couldn't help messing with this geezer, even in her sour mood.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. He seemed disgruntled by her attitude towards him.

"Came to see Eddie Brock. You know him? He lives here." she said, pointing to Eddie's room door.

"Mr. Brock, a very respectable fellow." the old man said, raising a brow at her, like he was wondering why dear respectable Mr. Brock would associate himself with people like this girl. "I haven't seen him in the last few days. Why, do you need him?"

"I just want to know if he's still breathing, but that's kind of hard to do right now..." Kenzie said, and looked back to the ceiling.

"Yes, well..." the old man said, and closed his door. Kenzie heard the sound of locks being fastened on the other side, and she smiled.

"Fuck off..." She was used to being seen that way. The way she dressed like a emo/punk rocker. The way she acted like someone who simply didn't care and took on whatever came her way. Because of the way she was, she didn't have a chance for any of the better paying jobs in the city. Her attitude was too much to handle. Jameson liked her attitude, though, and he liked her spirit. He personally had her hired.

Eddie like her attitude, too. He always said that it was the other people's problem if they didn't know how cool she really was, and that always raised her spirits. Ever since they were kids, he'd been there for her, looking out and keeping her above the water.

Now he was gone, and she didn't know where. She was getting scared as terrible ideas crept into her mind. A mugging, a hit-and-run, the disaster from last night.

Venom.

Kenzie shivered. What was that thing, and did he do something to Eddie? Did her friend get caught in the crossfire between him and Spiderman? Only God knew, and he was keeping his holy mouth shut like a clam shell.

"Dammit..."

The next day, Kenzie re-visited the lab, ignoring her college classes and work. When she reached it, she saw a police car in the front.

"Oh, God..." she parked her motorcycle and jumped off of it and sped toward the large building. She practically knocked the door down as she entered, and found Dr. Connors and his wife speaking to a police officer, who was taking notes. They noticed Kenzie, and waved her over. She ran up to them, panic all over her face.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Calm down, Kenzie." Connors said. "We're reporting a break-in." he said. Kenzie's eyebrows raised.

"Did they take anything?" she asked.

"Yes, they took the substance that you gave me yesterday." he said. Kenzie waited for more.

"And?"

"That's it."

"There's way more stuff to take though..."

"I know, and I'm thankful they didn't, though I would have liked to have gotten to that material to study even a little bit..."

"We're also filing a missing persons report on Eddie Brock." his wife said, tucking a strand of her straight blonde hair behind her ear. "Unless you've seen him?"

"No, I haven't seen him. I was thinking the cop was here to report something about Eddie..." Kenzie said. The officer seemed confused about this.

"We would report to his closest living relatives." he said. Kenzie glared at him.

"Eddie has no living relatives. The Connors are listed as his emergency contacts." she spat. The officer raised his hands in submission.

"Calm down, I get it." he said. "Has anyone checked where he lives?" The Connors' shook their heads, and Kenzie nodded.

"He's not home. I checked inside." she said without thinking. The people looked at her, brows raised. She shrugged. "Hey, his door wasn't locked, so I just went in." She decided to leave out the part where she knocked it open with her fist. The lie sounded more believable.

"Alright..." The officer said. "So no contact whatsoever?" he asked.

"None, whatsoever." Dr. Connors said.

"Is it possible he just took off without warning. Kids are known to do that these days."

"He's twenty-two, and hell no, he wouldn't do that. He isn't the type." Kenzie said, a bit too quickly. The officer nodded and jotted down some notes.

"I'll need photo identification for this guy." he said, looking to Kenzie again. She shrugged. She didn't keep a photo of him on her. That was weird.

"I'll be right back with a picture." Mrs. Connors said, and walked off to her office.

"Alright. So you doctors are Mr. Brock's emergency contacts, and who are you?" he asked Kenzie. "You his girlfriend?" she blushed.

"No, just a concerned friend, is all..." she said, and rubbed her arm awkwardly.

"Sure." the cop said with a smile, and Mrs. Connors returned with Eddie's lab ID photo. The cop looked at it, and smiled. "I know this kid, now. He was the star football player at that magnet school, right?" he asked. Kenzie sighed and nodded.

"Yeah..." she said, and walked over to a chair by the lab table. She slumped onto it, and smacked her forehead against the table, not caring that she made the chemicals quiver dangerously.

"Careful, Kenzie." Mrs. Connors said warily.

"Yeah..."

"I'm sure he'll be back soon." Dr. Connors said.

"Yeah..." she said. The officer cleared his throat.

"Well, I should have this sent in. We'll do everything in our-"

"-'Power to find this person and bring them back safely'. Yeah, I know the deal..." Kenzie said angrily. "Just put his name in the papers or something..."

"A-alright..." was the officers looked at the Connors and pointed at her in question.

"She's...been through this before..." Mrs. Connors said quietly. The officer nodded in understanding, and left. Kenzie didn't appreciate Connors talking giving information that wasn't hers to give. Sure, she had been through the missing persons crap before, but that was no business of anybody else...

Kenzie stood from the chair and walked for the exit, numb.

"Kenzie, would you like to stay?" Dr. Connors asked. "We could talk..."

"Sorry, doc, but you're a scientist, not a psychologist. I'll see you tomorrow to check on things." she said, and she exited, leaving the Connors a little more worried than before.

Back at her apartment, Kenzie had just opened her door to enter when her phone rang. She looked at the screen.

"Jameson." she said, with half a mind to not answer. She clicked the answer button anyway, regretting her choice before he even started talking.

"Marks! Where the hell have you been? Parker's not here! You're not here! What the hell am I gonna do about the web-slinger, huh?"

"What do you need, Jonah?" she asked.

"Need you to go back to the wreck site! Apparently theres another area you didn't go over! Got some other crap news stand with pictures _we don't have_!" he said.

"I'm on it, Jonah."

"Better be, dammit! And after that, take the day off! You sound crappy!" he said, and hung up. Kenzie closed the door and locked it before leaving again for her motorcycle.

Back at the wreck site, Kenzie once again made her way through the bushes and scanned the area for any officers or Spiderman. Finding neither, she walked back to the car. She looked in all angles that she could have missed, and frowned.

"I got all of it, dammit, Jameson..." she said, and went to the tree lining in the far back. After looking around for anything to snap shots of, she sighed and turned to leave again.

A small tree caught her attention, and she noticed the few bottom twigs were bent or snapped in half. She walked to it and looked around, finding another tree with more broken branches. Kenzie looked at the sky. The sun was setting, and it would be dark soon. After a moment of thought, she shrugged; she might as well do this while she was here. She placed her long curled hair in a loose bun and went for it, taking snapshots of the bent branches as she walked. She noticed the branches were bet all around her, making a kind of tunnel. She began to think that maybe something was thrown with force through here.

Something big.

The path seemed to last forever, but the bent branches finally seemed to lower, the large 'O' becoming closer to the ground. Maybe Kenzie would find this object after all, thinking it might be just a larger piece of metal or even a car. Anything was possible.

When the trees stopped, Kenzie found a small river. She noticed a skid mark on the ground that became larger and eventually became just a large empalement in the earth that lasted for nearly forty feet. She walked on its edge, looking inside at it became slightly deeper as it went. She didn't see any metal, or anything else for that matter. When she got to the end of it, it stopped abruptly at a large rock that was cracked in the center. Something did go through here, and that something could hit hard...

She was angry when she found nothing at the end, however; just the large rock that was disturbed by some force.

"_What the fuck was the damned force_?" she shouted, and kicked the dirt. This was every photographers nightmare. Something big and awesome, but no reason for it. What was the reason? What made this disturbance.

Kenzie finally huffed and stomped to the river. She sat roughly down, crossed her legs and ripped grass from the earth like she always did when she was mad. Herbicide was the only kind of murder she could commit without feeling crappy afterwards, and grass always went through a mini Holocaust when she was incredibly pissed the fuck off.

"Why. Can't. _Anything_. Go right. For. _Once?_" she said between tugs at the little green shoots. She hated feeling this way. She hated being worried. She hated her boss for sending her out here for nothing.

"For absolutely _fucking nothi_-"

"Gh***."

Kenzie stopped her rampage when she heard the weird noise come from her far right. The sky was a feint orange now, and she could barely see because of the shadows the trees cast. She waited for another noise.

"Hello?" she said after a minute of silence. She strained her ears to hear for anything.

The movement of small bits of rubble.

A light splash.

Kenzie jumped from her spot, anger replaced by intense curiosity. She ran down the bank of the river, trying to spot what made the noise.

"I swear to fucking God if it's another damned reporter, I'll tear their a-"

She stopped her speech, and came to an abrupt hault. On the riverside was a body, and it wasn't moving.

"Oh, my God..." she whispered, and ran to the body. It was a man, well built, with skewed blonde hair. He lay face down, his arm in the water. With great effort, Kenzie was finally able to flip him over to face upwards.

She gasped and covered her mouth to hold back the panicked scream.

It was Eddie.

"Oh, my God, Eddie!" His face was bruised, and dried blood caked its left side. She leaned over and listened for his breath. He was breathing, but it was shallow, and hitched every few seconds. She placed her hand over his chest and shook him a little in an attempt to wake him up.

"Gh..." was his verbal response. His face contorted in pain for a moment before going slack again. She took her hand away quickly, thinking maybe his ribs were broken. She looked over to the large empalement, and then at the cracked rock, until her eyes were back on Eddie.

"Oh, no, Eddie..." she said. Tears clouded her vision. Was it his body that did all that? She shook her head and grabbed her phone from her pocket. In seconds she was on the line with 911, yelling at them to come and pick her up at the wreck site with an ambulance. When she was done, she dropped the phone to the ground and ripped off part of her shirt to dip in the water. Using the wet cloth, she wiped the blood and dirt from Eddie's face. Now all that remained was bruises. Even with them he still managed to look handsome. She brushed his hair from his eyes and stared in disbelief at him. If she hadn't found him, who would have? He was half gone already. How much longer would he have lasted?

Kenzie was resolving to thank Jonah for sending her out here in the first place when a hand grabbed her shirt. She looked down and saw Eddie staring at her with his teeth bared and hatred in his black eyes. Kenzie panicked, afraid of his sudden awakening and look of such carnal rage.

Wait.

Eddie didn't have black eyes.

They were blue...

"Eddie? It's me. Kenzie..." she managed. She trembled as he scanned her, seeming like he was deciding whether to kill her now or later. His grip finally slackened, and he passed out again, a look of anger still etched in his sleeping face. Kenzie felt her heart hammering against her chest.

"Ooookay..."

...

Deep in Eddie's subconscious the symbiote was thinking. Judging. It had only sprung out like that to see if the disturbance was a threat to its existence. It would have killed the female had she not told who she thought was Brock who she was. When she voiced her name, the symbiote searched in Brock's mind like a filing cabinet for anything that had to do with her.

'Hmmm.'

She was an interesting case that could prove useful. Her trust in Brock would be very handy, indeed.

For that, he would allow her to live, even though it would cost the wonderful anguish he would taste from Brock's heart when he found her corpse.

Yes, she would live.

For now, at least...

...

A/N: Good so far? Yes? No? Throw it away? I have no idea. It's up to you. The choice is yours. ;P


	4. Small Talk

She sat in the white hallway of the hospital on an uncomfortable chair. The air smelled too clean for her tastes, and she would have left had she not been there for a very good reason.

That reason was Eddie.

Right now, he lay in the operating room, doctors scanning him, stitching him, cutting him open, doing whatever was necessary to fix him before it was too late.

"Too late..." she whispered, and gripped her arms in her hands. The doctors said if she had arrived a few hours later than she did, he would most likely be dead. She was so close to losing the only thing that helped her get through her miserable existence.

But she saved him. She was finally able to help him.

"Good. Good..." she said, and rested her forehead on her hands.

"Kenzie!" she heard Dr. Connors voice call to her. She had called them as soon as Brock was in the ambulance. Not even bothering to lifted her head and face them, she grunted hello.

"Is he okay?" Mrs. Connors asked. She sounded like a worried mother, with her voice cracking just a bit.

"Better than he would be had I not found him." Kenzie replied. She saw a tear fall from her eyelash to her lap, and she just let them fall, without the sobbing and the shaking. She was too tired to do all that. So, the tears just flowed freely, with her body completely still.

Dr. Connors sat next to her and rested his hand on her back. "You did good, Kenzie. Excellent." he said. Kenzie let the words sink in, never remembering anything like that coming from her own father. Dr. Connors was complimenting her, and she didn't even know how to take it, not being used to such things coming from anyone but Eddie...

"Uh...thanks..." she said, and continued staring at her lap, which was now covered in droplets.

"Hey. Kenzie." another's voice said. Peter's voice. This time, Kenzie looked up, bewildered. She didn't remember calling him. She glanced to Dr. Connors and figured it out. Behind Peter was Gwen Stacey and Mary Jane. The girls looked worried, but Peter seemed a bit angry. Why wouldn't he be. His friend was found half dead. Any friend would be angry about that, and would want to get even with the reason.

At least that's why she was angry. Maybe Peter was angry for another reason, but none came to mind.

"Hey, guys..." she muttered. Gwen walked over to her and knelt down, then hugged Kenzie fiercely, covering Kenzie's face with her short blonde hair. When she pulled back she took off her glasses and wiped her teary eyes.

"When I heard, I just crumpled like an accordion. I thought both of you were in the ER for a few minutes. Have you heard anything?" she asked. Kenzie shook her head. This girl, Gwen Stacey, angered her sometimes. Kenzie cared for Gwen, she really did, but she only used Eddie to make Parker jealous. Eddie really liked this girl, and she left his heart in less-than-good condition. Kenzie couldn't forgive that, but she would care for her just the same, not really knowing why at times. At least Gwen was crying for Eddie. That at least showed she really had a heart.

"He'll be just fine, I know it. Eddie's a tough guy, like an ox." Mary Jane said with a reassuring smile that even she didn't seem to believe. Kenzie appreciated the effort, and turned to Peter, who was deathly quiet. His eyes were shadowed, and he seemed off. He was sicker than she thought.

"Peter? Do you want to see a doctor?" she asked. He blinked a few times, and turned to her.

"No, I'm fine. Just...worried..." he said his last word with bitterness. He was worried. Really worried. While everyone was only worried about Eddie, he was worried about the entire hospital. His senses didn't react to the symbiote, since his DNA recognized it as part of him while he an d it were joined. He was left in the dark as to where it was. He wanted to find Brock, and figure out if he had gotten rid of the symbiote for good through that explosion.

He doubted it.

Peter looked to Kenzie. Her curled hair was falling out of its bun, and she looked pale from fear. He wanted to say something reassuring, but with Eddie Brock, he didn't know how to do that. All he could do was attempt a small smile of weak optimism, then look away from her.

Kenzie noticed Peter looking all over the place in suspicion, and was about to ask about his odd behavior when a doctor walked up to them. Her face wasn't readable, and she was looking at her clipboard. Kenzie stood and walked straight to her.

"So?" she asked. The doctor looked up and smiled politely.

"He needs plenty of rest, but he'll be okay, thanks to you, miss Marks." she said. A collective sigh from the people behind Kenzie, and she felt a weight lift off her shoulders.

"When are visitors permitted?" she asked.

"Tomorrow starting at three. Family only, I'm afraid."

"Doc, we're all he has." Kenzie said. The doctor looked from her to the group of people.

"Well, that should be fine, then." she said kindly, and excused herself.

"Oooh, he'll be okay..." Gwen said, her glasses sliding down her nose. Mary Jane smirked.

"Just said that, kiddo. No more worrying for you, alright?" she said. The Connors' only looked at each other in silent relief.

Peter still looked angry.

Kenzie walked up to him and waved her hand in front of his face.

"Hey, are you alright? Doc said he'll be fine, so lighten up a bit, will ya?" she said. Peter looked at her, and smiled.

She noticed every bit of it was fake.

"Seriously, what's eating you, Parker?" she asked. "You don't seem happy at all that he's going to be okay. Now, am I just being dumb, or are you really unhappy?" she asked. Peter suddenly looked guilty.

"I'm happy. I am. I was just thinking about the other night, and how he got there. It was Venom's fault..." he said angrily. "Most likely.." he added. Once again, Kenzie felt relief.

"Yeah, from what I saw at the wreck site, he got in that big things line of sight. Just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Tell me about it." he said.

"You can't help but blame Spidey at least a little bit, too, you know. Venom was after him. I know you're all buddy-buddy with the guy, but..." she trailed off when she saw how dark Peter's face became.

"Yeah, I know. Spiderman shouldn't have let that happen, and he blames himself for this." he said. Kenzie cocked her head.

"How do you know that?" she asked, confused. Peter's eyes widened for a second.

"I was, uh, out taking some pics of him when Dr. Connors called. I wanted to make up to Jameson for missing all these days from work." he said.

"You work too much, Parker." Kenzie said, smiling. "You need rest, and going out and chasing Spidey isn't going to help you get at all better.

"Yeah, well..." he said. He tried to focus a little on the conversation, but he was still paranoid. Was it here, or did it move on...

He needed to know, and to get that information, he needed to see Brock...

...

From above Kenzie and Peter, in the air shafts, it listened. It was forced to retreat from his host for the time being, in order to keep the doctors from finding anything from within his body that would lead to its discovery.

It felt his old hosts fear and anger, and loved it. He wanted the Parker boy to be afraid of it. He would pay for his betrayal. Harshly...Horribly...It also felt the emotions the girl was giving. They were...interesting...

She showed such an abundancy of caring for its host, and it chuckled.

She would be easy for them to use. Easy to manipulate.

Easy to take complete control of...

It watched them say their goodbyes, speaking of returning the next day. The girl would definitely be back. It knew.

They knew...

...

When she returned to her apartment, Kenzie went straight to the shower. After that, she went straight to bed. In less than thirty seconds after her head hit the pillow she was out like a light, hoping Eddie would be awake when she visited the next day.

When morning came, Kenzie went to her psychology class, anxious. Through the entire lesson, all she could think about was leaving. She felt like she was becoming obsessive after a while, and forced herself to concentrate on her work by the next class, which was history, something that she thankfully enjoyed.

By the time all her classes ended for the day, it was 3:15. She wanted to be there early, but she couldn't skip out on the economics test. She knew she made a solid 'A'. She always did in all of her classes. Brains were the only thing she inherited from her father, and for that she was thankful...

When she reached the hospital, she hurriedly parked her motorcycle and ran inside. She asked the receptionist where Brock was being kept, and he just had to be at the top floor.

Great. Heights.

Even in buildings, she still couldn't stand going up more than a few stories, and she never sat near a window if she was more than two stories up.

Grudgingly, she made her way to the elevator, and allowed herself to leave her comfort zone.

"He's probably laughing at me from his fucking bed..." she muttered, gripping the safety bar tightly as she climbed ever upward. When she reached the top floor, she stepped carefully out and looked for Eddies room number. When she finally approached it, she opened the door, her breath held.

She saw Peter inside.

She almost smiled until she saw his look of pure anger as he stared down at Eddie, who looked slightly amused. Peter saw Kenzie, and straightened himself up. He headed to the door and looked at her. She saw a flash of worry his his face before he was gone. She watched him leave, then closed the door, confused.

"What was that about?" she asked aloud, and looked to Eddie, who was smiling at her with a pleasant expression, his blue eyes glinting brightly. She smiled back, and figured the black eyes from the other night were only shadows.

"Oh, he's just being Peter. He's a bit full of himself. We-I'm surprised he's actually like that..." he said, and motioned for her to come closer.

"I never noticed that before. He wasn't being rude, was he?" she asked, and sat in a chair by his bed. Eddie shook his head, then looked at her funny. She raised a brow.

"What?" she asked.

"Fine. I see how it is. No hugs for Eddie Brock. Hell no, not from Kenzie Marks..." he said, and folded his arms. Kenzie grinned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"I was so worried about you, you know. So cut me some frickin' slack, buster." she said, and pulled away. He nodded, and took her hand.

"We-I was informed about how you found me. Thanks, kid. You really helped me out. I'd be dead if it weren't for you. And M.J. Said you were freaking out to no end. Sorry I put you through that." he said.

"Mary Jane was here?" Kenzie asked. He nodded.

"They came with Peter, but they needed to leave early, leaving Petey and me to duke it put, mono y mono, ya know?" he said.

"What were you fighting about?"

"Oh, just some past stuff. He had questions I didn't have answers to, so he got mad. It was pretty funny, actually."

"I'll smack him..."

"No, don't. I don't want you getting mad at him for something between him and me. Alright?" he said, and gave her a stern look, the same look he always gave her when he scolded her in highschool.

"Yup." she said, like she always did when he was done. He grinned at her, then coughed into his hand. She was instantly worried. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a small cold I got from being out there. I'll be able to leave in a few days, if I keep healing like this." he said.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I'm healing pretty quick. I'm surprised. From what I've been told, I feel I should be in way worse condition than this." he said. Kenzie remembered the broken braches, and the cracked rock.

"Yeah, thank God..." she muttered. She felt tears well in her eyes, and she tried to blink them back, and she squeezed Eddie's hand in hers. He squeezed back, and that surprised her.

"I'm okay, kid, really." he said. And lifted his free arm and flexed it, showing off the muscles. "Takes more than a stupid rock to take your old buddy Eddie down." he said. Kenzie laughed, and felt the tears slowly subside. Only he of all people had that effect on her.

"I know you're tough, Eddie, so stop showing off." she said, smiling. He smirked as he lowered his arm.

"Can't help that your scrawny self feels jealous."

"Bitch, please, I'm way too awesome to feel something like jealousy." she said.

"_There's_ the crazy chick I love to make fun of." Eddie said.

"Jee, thanks, bro." she said, and for a moment, the two were quiet. Eddie finally cleared his throat.

"So, listen..." he said.

"Yeah?"

"When I'm released, I'm not going to be able to stay alone for a few months. Just in case something happens, you know?" he said. Kenzie nodded.

"Yeah?"

"The Connors' suggested I stay with them, but I don;t want to impose on them. They already have to deal with a lot."

"Yeah?"

"So I was wondering if I could stay with you." he finished.

"Yeah, sure." she said, and shrugged. Eddie blinked.

"Really? You're just agreeing right there, and that's it?" he asked. Kenzie nodded.

"Yup. I'm here for you, bro. You know that. You need a place to stay at for a while, and I'm cool with it. I'll just sleep on the couch." she said. Her apartment only had one bedroom.

"If space is an issue, you could stay at my place." Eddie suggested. His apartment had two bedrooms, and twice the space. Conveniences of being a science major and working in a lab.

"Sounds fine to me. It'll be like a sleep-over. I'll braid your hair and we can gossip about fat people." she said.

"Don't make me regret this..." he said, half serious. She smiled evilly at him.

"Oh, I will..." she said. Brock smiled, but inwardly he growled.

'You had best not...' it said, and licked it's teeth in anticipation.

"Well, I gotta get going before Jonah screams at me through the phone." she said, and released his hand and stood.

"I'll see you soon then?" he asked. He sounded depressed. Kenzie blushed slightly.

"Yeah, duh. I'll see you tomorrow after classes." she said, and leaned over and kissed his forehead. "Just get better, Eddie, alright? I don't feel like worrying about you all the time."

"It's not like it was my fault." he said innocently.

"Yeah, I know. If I ever meet that Venom dude, I'll beat the hell out of him for hurting you." she said with full seriousness.

"Overprotective much?" he asked as she walked to the door.

"Your one to talk, the person who was always looking out for me over the smallest things."

"It's my nature."

"See ya, Eddie." she said, and left, feeling much better about her day.

...

Eddie watched her go, and smiled.

"But you didn't let us finish, Kenzie. It's our nature to be possessive with our things..."

And Kenzie _was _theres.

Their toy.

Their tool.

Eddie Brock touched his forehead where she had kissed him. A twinge of something familiar entered his mind, but he pushed it back. That familiar feeling would make him weak.

Vulnerable.

And he, Venom, could not allow that...


	5. Silly Putty

"Ahh, home sweet home."

"For you, maybe. It's way too clean in your apartment."

"And I would like it to stay that way."

"Ha, fine."

Kenzie pushed Eddie down the hall in his wheelchair. He technically didn't need it, but the doctors insisted. As they reached his apartment, Kenzie heard a door open behind her.

"Mr. Brock! What on Earth happened?" the old man from the other day exclaimed. Eddie and Kenzie looked over to him.

"I was in a small accident, Mr. Morris. I'm fine now." Eddie said with a smile. Mr. Morris nodded, then looked to Kenzie in slight suspicion. "She'll be staying with me until I'm fully recovered." Eddie added. Morris nodded again.

"Alright then, Mr. Brock. Get well soon. If you need anything just ask." he said, and gave one small dirty look to Kenzie before closing his door again. Kenzie huffed and smirked at Eddie.

"I think the old dude's got the hots for ya, bro." she said in amusement. Eddie shrugged and smiled.

"It's hard to not be loved when you look this good." he said. Kenzie flicked him in the head before opening the door to his apartment.

The window was open.

Kenzie rushed in and looked around suspiciously. It wasn't open when she was last here.

"Maybe the wind blew it open or something." Eddie said, scanning the area with a smug expression. "I don't see anything missing, and I don't even own anything valuable. My television is from the dinosaur age." he joked. Kenzie nodded, still looking around for signs of an intruder. She walked to the window and closed it, then figured someone couldn't get in here through that way, since they were seven stories up.

"Maybe Spiderman paid a visit..." she joked, and turned back to Eddie. He was standing, and walking to the kitchen. "Hey! The doctors said-"

"Eh, the doctors are boring. I want a drink, and I don't feel like carting over here just to get one." he said.

"Well, you could have just asked and-"

"You're not my slave, Kenzie." he said, and pulled a soda from the fridge. He smiled as he popped the can open. "If you were my slave, you'd be in a skimpy outfit." Kenzie frowned, then walked up to him and socked him in the arm. "Hey! I just got out of the hospital and you're already beating me up. Not nice."

"Sorry, I forgot how _weak _you are right now..." she sneered, and turned to leave for the exit. "I need to go get the other stuff from the car." she said. Thank god Eddie owned a car, else it would have been a couple of trips bringing her stuff from her apartment with her motorcycle.

Before she reached the door, however, she was suddenly brought up into the air by her waist. She yelped, not liking the sudden retreat from the ground. She looked behind her to see Eddie smiling like an idiot.

"What's that about me being weak, scrawny?" he asked, and set her back down.

"I hate you."

"I never knew you cared so much." he said, and walked over to the couch and sat down. Kenzie stuck her tongue out at him before leaving to get her things.

As she left, Eddie turned on the television to find any news about the events from the other day when he fought Spiderman. He enjoyed watching the scared people that were interviewed.

While he flipped through the channels, a small tinkling caught his attention. He turned the television off, and became deathly quiet. When the tinkling sounded again, he noticed it came from the window. He stood up and stalked to it, then opened it wide to look out. Nothing below, and nothing above. Eddie looked to his left, and he growled.

A wind chime was hanging by a web and clinked together as the wind blew. A small gust of wind hit the ornament, and it clinked louder, sending a sharp pain through Brocks head. He snatched the chime and crushed it in his hands.

"Very funny, Parker..." he muttered, and slammed the window shut. He walked to the trash and dropped the dented chime into it. "It's not nice to play mind gems with us..."

"Do what?" Eddie spun around to see Kenzie walking back in with her things. She seemed confused. He sighed, and managed a smile.

"A guy can't talk to himself once in a while?" he asked, and went back to the couch. Kenzie sniffed, then brought her things to the spare bedroom.

"You want anything in particular for dinner?" she asked when she returned to the living room. Eddie watched as an Asian man yelled at the reporter about how Spiderman and Venom destroyed his restaurant.

"Chinese sounds fun." he said.

"Alright., cool." she said, and headed to the door. "See you in a few."

"Be careful out there."

"Yeah, yeah.."

She left again, and Eddie relaxed. He sighed; acting goody-goody was difficult, but, he would learn to grow used to it, for his sake.

And its sake.

He became thirsty, and realized he left his soda on the kitchen counter. Feeling lazy, he merely shot one of his black webs from his wrist and latched onto the can, bringing it back like a tape measure. The web melted back into his skin, and he took a drink.

"We won't be able to hide for long..." he said to it.

'We are not hiding at all.' it said.

"So, what then?"

'Let's pay the girl a visit while she is out. Let's see how she reacts to the presence of Venom...'

Eddie smiled, his teeth suddenly pointed, and his eyes black.

"Sounds like fun..."

...

Kenzie exited the little chinese restaurant with to cartons of food in a brown paper bag with the restaurant's name printed on it; China Charlie.

"I've never known a chinese guy named Charlie, but whatever." she muttered, and took off for the apartment building. The walk was short enough, so she figured she wouldn't waste the gas in her cycle just to go a few blocks. She looked at the stuck cabs and other assortment of cars in the road, all honking and yelling at each other from the driver's seat. "I suppose it's faster to walk, anyway." she said.

"True, but what's the fun in that?" said a voice. Kenzie confusedly looked around for where it came from. "Up here..." she heard the voice rasp. She looked up.

And screamed.

The hulking figure of Venom was against the wall, just above her head. His large mouth was open wide, showing his rows of long, pointed teeth and his monstrous tongue lolled out the side. His large white eyes seemed to stare right at her.

In one swipe, he had her in his clutches. She screamed again as he brought her close to him, bringing her face only inches from his. Kenzie could see the other people below her running and screeching away. Venom laughed, some of his drool hitting her face. Her breathing was panicked, and she noticed she still had the chinese food bag in her hands.

Using all the power she could, she swung her arm and smashed the monster in the face with the food. He dropped her, surprised that she attacked, and she fell to the ground. In an instant she was up and running as fast as she could from him. There was almost nobody in the area, and she could hear police sirens steadily come closer.

Venom growled, and went after her. She was fast, but not nearly as fast as he was. He would catch her...

Kenzie looked over her shoulder, and saw Venom bounding toward her, still attached to the wall, and looking incredibly fucking pissed.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." she turned a corner and picked up her speed. Her lungs wanted to explode, and she felt her legs burn. She hadn't run this fast since her father...

She shook her head angrily, and kept running. Once again she looked behind her to see how much closer he had gotten.

He wasn't there.

Her mind ran laps, trying to figure out what happened to him, and she stopped paying attention to where she was going.

A sharp pain in her leg, and she tripped over a crate. Her head hit the concrete, and stars exploded in front of her eyes.

"Uuuuugh, fuck..." she sat up and rubbed her head. "Why God, did you have to put that fucking crate there..."

She felt something wrap around her waist, and she was once again hauled into the air by Venom by black tendrils that shot from his back and arms. She gasped and tried to yank them away.

"Ugh! Jeez, silly putty from hell!" she yelled as her hands stuck to the black goo that coated the tendrils. It really did feel like putty.

Warm.

Black.

Putty.

"Yuuuuuuuuck!" when she finally yanked her hand away, parts of it still stuck to her fingers. She looked down, and went pale. She had to be four stories high, and she was captured by a crazy spider putty monster.

Her day could seriously not get worse.

Before she could yell for help, she was once again face-to-face with Venom. He looked like he was smiling.

"Little tiny fly..." he rumbled.

"Gyuuuh..." was her response. To spiders, flies were food. She concluded she was about to be eaten. Venom brought her closer and his tongue ran up her face. He laughed loudly as she screeched in disgust.

"So scared. Your fear and anger tastes wonderful..." he said. Kenzie was barely paying attention. All she was thinking about was getting free from this thing. She felt like a doll in this giant creatures clutches.

"Eddie! Help!" She didn't mean to say Eddie's name. He hadn't even crossed her mind. It was reflex, left from her childhood filled with being protected by Brock. He squashed the spiders that crossed her path, and helped her down from high places. He kept her safe, and she needed his help now, even though he was too far away to even hear her cries.

Venom hissed when she called Eddies name. A twinge of that familiar feeling filled his mind once again, and it was harder to push away this time as he stared at her frightened face. Her fear suddenly wasn't as appetizing as it was previously, and he was angry that he had lost his enjoyment in her suffering.

'Vile thing...' it thought, and it had half a mind to crush her, but that would destroy his plans. He wouldn't be protected anymore. It would lose his alibi.

Kenzie saw the expression of annoyance on the monster's face, and glanced at his muscled body. She gulped. With one swipe, she could be dead.

This sucked.

Little tiny strings from the monsters tendrils searched her body, squirming and growing over her like a net. She wanted to throw up.

"Hey, ugly. The circus called. They need their freak back!" said someones cocky voice from above. Kenzie looked up to see Spiderman swinging towards them. Great. Two spiders to deal with.

Venom snarled and lowered Kenzie quickly to the ground before jumping away to the roof. Spiderman followed him, and Kenzie fell to her knees, thankful that she wasn't dead. Her entire body was shaking horribly , and she crawled to the wall and leaned against it.

No one came to help her. Everyone was gone for blocks, barricaded in their homes or shops, not daring to poke their heads out. She didn't care. The silence was welcomed. She just needed to sit for a few minutes to collect herself, and then she would find her way back to the apartment.

"Sorry, no chinese tonight, Eddie..." she said.

"Kenzie!" someone called. Kenzie looked over to see that Spiderman had landed next to her. He picked her up. "You need medical attention."

"Sure..." she said, and thankfully passed out before she was in the air again.

...

When she woke up, there was an annoying beeping noise. She opened her eyes, and they widened when she saw Peter, Harry, Gwen, and Dr. Connors looking back at her. She was in a hospital bed, in a small room. So the Spider really did bring her to the hospital. Cool.

"H-hey..." she said weakly.

"Are you okay, Kenzie?" Peter asked. He seemed more worried than anything.

And again. Angry.

"Yeah. I was just tossed around in the air by a giant spider thing that secretes silly putty, and I spent twenty bucks on chinese food that I ended up only using as a weapon of self defense. I'm doing great..."

"Well, her attitude wasn't damaged at all, at least." Harry said. Kenzie felt her head, and noticed it was bandaged.

"Is this all the damage?" she asked.

"Yes." Dr. Connors said. The door to the room opened and Eddie walked in, looking angry. Before Kenzie could say hello, Peter ran up and slammed Eddie into the wall. Harry and Connors grabbed Peter and pulled him back. Eddie adjusted his leather jacket and frowned at Peter.

"Jeez, bro. That wasn't called for..." he said.

"Go to hell!" Peter shouted. Gwen gasped, and Mary Jane narrowed her eyes.

"Peter, quit acting like a dork! Eddie isn't the reason she's here!" she said. Peter cursed, and shrugged Harry and Connors off of him. He left the room and slammed the door behind him. Everyone looked to Eddie.

"Hey, I have no idea what that was about." he said, his hands in the air. Harry walked up and patted his shoulder.

"It's all good, bro. He's probably just stressed, is all. In the past week most of his friends have been on the hospital 'cause of this Venom guy. He's just going a bit hay-wire." he said, and left the room to find Peter. Eddie walked up to Kenzie and bopped her shoulder lightly.

"You still alive, slugger?" he asked, smiling.

"If you can call it that, yes." she said.

"I'll have you checked out of here soon. Might be a few hours, though."

"That's fine."

"So, how was your chat with Venom?" he asked casually. Kenzie wrinkled her nose.

"He licked me on the cheek..."

"Ew!" the two looked to Gwen, who seemed grossed out. She blushed, and waved them away. "Sorry, continue..." Mary Jane snorted, and dragged Gwen out of the room with Connors to give the two some privacy. Mary Jane winked at Kenzie before the door closed, and Kenzie blushed. Leave it to M.J...

"W-I told you to be more careful..." Eddie said, bring back her attention.

"I wasn't expecting that to happen..." Kenzie said.

"In this city, you need to expect what is usually unexpected."

"Thanks for the advice." Kenzie said, and leaned back into the pillow. "Why does this Venom guy have to but into my life so much. First he has you turned into a giant bruise, and then he ruins our chinese food. What an asshole..."

"You seem to not like this guy very much..." His eyebrow furrowed.

"Ya think? He's nothing but a hassle to anyone. What's his deal, anyway?"

"Maybe he's getting revenge, or maybe he's just doing whatever he wants. Maybe it's a mixture of both..."

"Maybe. I hate villains. They're stupid, and dumb..."

"Don't attack these villains unless you know their whole story, Kenzie..." Eddie said seriously. He clenched his hands into fists and stared hard at the floor. "Sometimes they're turned the way they are by other so-called innocents. It's not always their fault..."

Kenzie noticed his face was so full of feeling as he said those words.

"You okay, Eddie?" she asked. Eddie glance at her, annoyed at how worried her voice sounded. She was concerned for him..

"You really care 'bout me, don't you..." he said as a response. Kenzie blushed.

"Yeah, so?"

"Nothing..."

That fucking feeling again.

So familiar.

So hated.

He gripped his jeans, and growled softly.

Kenzie jumped.

"Did you just growl?" she asked. Eddie's head snapped up and he looked at her. He let himself slip.

Dammit.

"I-uh, just don't like seeing you like this, is all. Sorry if I scared you." he said quickly. Thank God for his quick wit in these situations...

Kenzie reached over and rested her hand on his arm. He tensed.

"I'll be fine, Eddie. You're okay, and you went through way worse than I did. I just need a damned ice pack and that's it. Y'know, that Venom guy isn't so scary..."

"...right..."

"I am officially dubbing him 'Silly Putty', too." she added. Eddie sputtered.

"_What_?"

"That goopy junk reminded me of silly putty, so I'll call him that. Putty, for short, haha. It also helps makes him even less scary."

"I don't think he would appreciate that..."

"Well I didn't appreciate being picked up, licked, and growled at, and I especially didn't like him ruining our food. That asshole can get over it." she said, and crossed her arms. Eddie bit his tongue to keep the words he wanted so horribly to scream at her from escaping his mouth.

"Yes...I suppose..."

Silly Putty.

What the fuck...


	6. Dealt With

"Yeah well, fuck you, too, asshole!" Kenzie yelled through her mask at the car that cut dangerously in front of her. One second earlier and she and her motorcycle would have been scraps on the road.

It had been three days since Kenzie's fun with Venom, and she was just growing used to not looking over her shoulder every few seconds.

She stopped at a red light, and leaned against the handle bars of the bike. "At least Peter's back." she said in optimism. She was now free from hunting anything related to Spiderman, and could keep her photography focused on the science field. Dr. Connors' lab and the lab at OsCorp were her main areas of interest, and she couldn't wait to get back to it.

"No more spiders.." she muttered, sticking her tongue out at the thought. The red light turned green, and she continued on her way.

Once she reached the bugle, she was immediately greeted by Peter at the door. He seemed off, but she didn't care anymore. He's was always off these days.

"Hey, Parker, perfect timing. I got Mary's bag here." she said, and slung off her back pack. From inside it she retrieved the red leather bag that she found at the wreck site. Kenzie was finally free from the gaudy thing. She handed it to Peter, and he took it without a word. She huffed. "Aw, thanks Kenzie. Oh, no Problem Petey." she said, and began her walk to Jameson's office. He followed.

"So, I hear Eddie's doing pretty good." he said. Kenzie nodded.

"Yeah, he's doing much better. I can't say the same about his relationship with you, though. You guys need to fix that..." she said, remembering when he slammed Eddie against the wall. Peter grunted in response.

"Well, then I guess it's okay for you to move out now." he said. Kenzie raised a brow.

"How you mean?"

"I mean, since you're not needed at all anymore." he said. Kenzie stopped in her tracks, and turned to Peter. She folded her arms and narrowed her blue eyes, giving him an icy death glare.

"You really know how to talk to a woman, Parker..." she muttered.

"I, uh, didn't mean it like that." he said quickly.

"Yeah? So explain kid. Remember, you might still be in highschool, but you're also eighteen. That means I can kick your ass all over this building and not get into too much trouble for it..." she said. Peter gulped. She wasn't even as tall as him and he was creeped out by her.

"You know, you could give Doc Oc a run for his money in an evil glaring contest..." he said with a weak smile. Kenzie's eyes darkened.

"That eight legged freak isn't what we're talking about..."

"Yeah, right, I'm sorry. It's just been...hectic, for the last few weeks...I'm not used to worrying this much and my thoughts are jumbled..." he said. Kenzie felt her anger droop a bit, and she patted his brown hair.

"We've all had a bad few weeks, Petey. Just relax, and loosen up a little. One good nap might be good for your head." she said.

"Parker! Marks! My office, now!" Jameson hollered from his office door, and slammed it shut. Leave it to Jameson to destroy a comfort session.

"The grumpy dragon is awake, I see." she mumbled, and headed for the office. Peter smirked and followed her.

"I always thought of him as more of a raging badger." he said. Kenzie snickered as she opened the door and walked in.

"What's so funny!" Jonah yelled at her.

"Badgers." was her reply. Jonah frowned.

"Nothing wrong with those things! They get their point across with a swift bite in the ass! Anyway! Not the point! Parker! What are you doing here?"

"You called me in here, sir." Peter said.

"Well go get me some Spiderman pictures! You shouldn't need to be told what to do!" he yelled. Peter turned to Kenzie, shrugged, and left.

"What do you want from me, Jonah?" she asked.

"We're making a piece on interviews we have with victims of Spiderman and this Venom guy. You're going to be interviewed!" he said with a large smile. Kenzie sputtered.

"Are you serious?" she said. This was so stupid.

"Yup! Want you to give every detail about it, to! Now go on! Marge will point you to the interviewer!" he said, and waved her out. Kenzie exited the office feeling ridiculous.

"Ugh, this sucks.." she said, and walked over to Marge.

...

The next day Eddie was sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels, when a knock came to the door. He grumbled, and answered it. It was Mr. Morris.

"Yeah?" Eddie asked, with only a hint of politeness. He always hated this guy.

"Oh, I just felt I should check in on you, Mr. Brock." he said smiling.

"Thanks, but I'm fine-"

"I of course knew that, but I was just worried about the girl, and I felt I should talk to you about it." he said. Eddie leaned against the doorframe and looked the old man up and down. He may be a problem...

"Yeah? Explain." he said. Morris cleared his throat.

"Well, I was reading the days' paper and noticed her story about being in the presence of that monstrous creature the other day." he said. Eddie raised a brow. He had read the paper, but he didn't find anything odd about it.

"Yeah?"

"And I noticed that one thing was quite odd about it." Morris said.

"And what is that?"

"Well, while the other victims say something about being thrown or beaten out of the way and seriously injured, this girl was only picked up and set back on the ground. Wasn't tossed, wasn't harmed, like every other person was. Some will be physically scarred for life, and others are even dead, while this girl got away with a headache. It's odd."

Eddie tensed. This guy was suspicious, and he was known to gossip.

"I'm sure it's just coincidence." he said. Morris shook his head.

"I don't think it is, Mr. Brock. You've seen the way this girl acts, the way she dresses. All she's missing is a gun and she could be the perfect criminal. I wouldn't be surprised if she was somehow in cahoots with this big fellow. Perhaps she should be questioned." he said.

Eddie couldn't help but become angry at the man's hateful words towards Kenzie. She was just a pawn, and this man was making inaccurate accusations against her. That made Eddie mad, and he didn't like that he was getting mad over something as stupid as this.

"I really don't think that's fair, re-"

"And it get's worse." Morris said. Eddie waited.

"I think she may be using you, Mr. Brock." he said in a hushed voice. Eddie stared at Morris, then broke out into laughter. Morris watched as he laughed in confusion. He didn't remember saying anything funny.

"Morris...Morris, Morris, Morris." Eddie said as he finally calmed down. This old man was a complete idiot.

"It's true, Mr. Brock. Why else would she be hanging around you? From the way she acts and dresses I'm getting that she may 'play for the other team' if you understand my meaning. She might be using your place as simply a recharge area for when she isn't out doing...whatever she does that pleases her." Morris shivered at this, and Eddie was angry again. He liked the way she dressed, and the way she acted was acceptable at most times. This old man didn't even know her and he was saying all of this...

Yes, he was a problem.

Inside Eddie's mind it hissed quietly.

"Anyway, Mr. Brock. I just wanted to share my thoughts and warn you to keep a careful eye on her. She may end up doing something you regret. I know I'll be watching her like a hawk." he said. "See you later, Mr. Brock." Morris then went back to his apartment.

Eddie remained in the doorframe. So this guy would be watching Kenzie. He couldn't allow that. The old bastard might find out something about Venom. Eddie's eyes turned black. Kenzie wouldn't be back from work for a few more hours.

He would fix this problem.

He walked over to Morris' door and knocked. Morris answered, and smiled up at Eddie. Eddie smiled back.

"I'd like to talk more about this with you, before she comes home. I've been a slight bit suspicious to, and could use some pointers." he said. Morris opened the door fully to welcome Eddie inside.

"Glad you see my way of things, Mr. Brock." he said, and closed the door.

A muffled yelp.

The sound of bone cracking.

Flesh tearing.

Silence, followed by a rumbled laugh.

...

Kenzie walked into the apartment and shut the door behind her. Eddie looked to be napping on the couch. She tip-toed her way to the kitchen and to the fridge to get a soda. She tried her best to muffle the pop the can made when she opened it, and turned around.

She almost dropped her soda when she found Eddie standing directly in front of her.

"Eddie! You scared the hell out of me!" she said, and smacked his shoulder lightly. He sniggered.

"You're too easy to surprise, you know." he said, and took her soda.

"Hey, that's mine, you bully." Kenzie frowned and tried to take it back. Eddie placed his hand on her forehead to hold her back while he took a drink.

"Not like you can do anything about it." he joked, and walked back to the couch. She folded her arms and huffed.

"Maybe I should take Peter's advice and move out. If you're healthy enough to bully a person, then I think my aid here is done." she said.

The words smacked Eddie hard in the brain. So Parker was sending her messages. He didn't like that. And Kenzie couldn't leave. She was his alibi. His pawn. Her staying with him guaranteed that he would be stuck up for if the Spider revealed Venom's identity. She wouldn't know he was leaving through his bedroom window, and she wouldn't believe it. She was naive.

"It's so dull around here when it's just me, though. You're my only entertainment." he whined with a smile. Kenzie tsked and cracked an amused smile.

"Really? You're ridiculous. I'll stay a few more days, but then I'm out of your hair." she said.

Eddie clenched his jaw.

"Kenzie..." he said, his voice soft. Kenzie cocked her head to the side, then walked over to him.

"You okay, Eddie?" she asked, and touched the back of her hand to his forehead. He didn't have a fever, but he sounded odd. He took her hand in his and pulled her down to his level. Kenzie was completely confused.

"I feel perfectly fine." he lied. He hated what he was about to do. It disgusted him.

He kissed her.

Kenzie froze, her thoughts scrambled. He was kissing her. Her cheeks became warm, and she wanted to just yell 'what the fuck' all over the place. When Eddie pulled back, he looked incredibly serious.

"Uh..." she said, and wrung her hands. She couldn't believe it. She had nothing to say.

Eddie was trying to read her face, but it kept changing expressions and it only made his head hurt to try and decipher what she was thinking. When he kissed her, a flood of emotions consisting mostly of surprise and panic exploded in his and its mind. It was insane. This girl was calm on the surface, but underneath, she was just completely chaotic. A jumbled mess. It was almost painful to bear.

"Kenzie..." he said. Her change in expressions stopped, and she looked at him with the one of confusion.

"Yeah?" she squeaked.

"I..." he couldn't say that word. It might as well have been a curse word to him.

'Love'.

It didn't exist in him. It had no purpose, no meaning.

Kenzie watched him sigh in agitation, and she felt guilty. She was making him like this, and her keeping quiet wasn't helping. She squeezed his hand, and he looked back at her.

She kissed him.

Once again the flood of bottled emotions ran through Eddie's head. They were different though. More organized.

Organized chaos.

Interesting.

He searched through her emotions, finding the small pits of despair and sadness that he and it enjoyed. Something else crossed them, however, and they searched to find it again. It was fleeting, but strong, and recognizable.

Rage.

Where had it come from? Eddie felt everywhere in her emotions for that emotion again, wanting desperately to find it and its source.

He couldn't find it, and felt himself become angry. That was too strong to be able to lose so easily. How bottled was it? How far had this girl pushed down all of her anger and hatred? He wanted horribly to find it. He wanted to know how it tasted. Would it be like water, or fine wine. He didn't know.

Somewhere from a distance, a voice called his name. It was so small, he ignored it, and kept trying to find the girl's rage.

The voice called again, louder, more serious.

Eddie opened his eyes, surprised to see Kenzie looking down at him. He was lying on the couch, against the arm rest, and he was holding Kenzie tightly against him. Her hands rested on his chest, and she was pushing gently away. He released her, and she got off of him and sat up on the couch. She cleared her throat as he sat upright, his face a little red from embarrassment.

"Well, I guess I can stay longer than a few days..." she said, and smiled at him. He smiled as well, but not for the same reasons as hers. His plan had worked, and he would not lose his tool.

"Yeah, that would be great."

"So, what exactly does this make us?" she asked. Eddie shrugged.

"Together?"

"That sounds good." she said, and they were both silent, watching the television screen while they thought of what just happened.

"So, what do you want to eat tonight?" Kenzie finally asked. "And do not say chinese." she added. Eddie forced a smile and shrugged.

"We can just order a pizza to be delivered." he said, and kept his eyes on the screen.

"Alright, sounds-"

Kenzie's cellphone ringing kept her from finishing, and she looked at the number. She answered.

"Hello, Jonah." she said.

"Where the hell are you!" he replied loud enough for Eddie to hear.

"I'm doing great, thanks for asking." she said. Eddie snickered.

"Need to go by OsCorp and snap some pictures! Osborn's gonna do an announcement about some sort of stupid thing that I don't care about, but everyone loves apparently! Want the pictures tomorrow morning!" he yelled, and hung up. Kenzie sighed and stood.

"Duty calls..." she muttered, and grabbed her coat.

"You shouldn't let that pompous-ass boss you around like that whenever he wants." Eddie said. Kenzie shrugged.

"It's my job, what can I say?" she said, and headed for the door.

"Be safe, at least." he said. She smiled.

"I'll try." she said, and closed the door behind her.

As she walked down the hall and to the elevator, she passed Morrison's door. An odd scent filled her nose, and she glanced at the door in question.

"Probably using incense or something weird like that..." she muttered, and continued on.

Behind Morrison's door, his severed head, tongue missing, sat at the living room coffee table. Bits of his corpse were strewn across the living room, and blood was splashed everywhere, coating even the ceiling.

Torn flesh.

Broken bone.

The scent of drying blood.

In his apartment, Eddie smiled, and licked his pointed teeth.


	7. Strange Reaction

A loud shriek woke Kenzie up the next morning. She sat blot right up in her bed and looked wildly around, trying to figure whether or not the noise was a figment of her imagination or not.

Another shriek, and a sob.

Kenzie jumped out of bed and ran for the living room. Nothing was there. She saw Eddie open his bedroom door and walk out, his hair a mess and an agitated look on his tired face. He looked at Kenzie.

"Was that you-"

Another loud sob from outside the apartment in the hallway interrupted his sentence. Kenzie rushed to the entrance door and opened it.

An old woman sat huddled againsta the wall near the door, and she was shaking horribly. Kenzie knelt down and touched the woman's shoulder. The woman flinched back and yelped.

"Look lady, I'm not going to hurt you. Calm down." Kenzie said. The woman looked up at her and gripped her shirt sleeve.

"L-L-L-Lawrence..." she said, and began to sob some more. She pointed with a shaky finger to Mr. Morris' door, which was open. Kenzie's brow furrowed and she stood to walk over. The woman grabbed her leg. "N-No...too bad..." Kenzie eased away from the woman's grip and walked over to Morris' door to see what was so bad.

"What, is he naked or something..." she muttered quietly. She looked inside.

Her head went numb.

The scene was terrible, like she just walked into the ultimate horror movie. Her hand covered her mouth, and she shook in her spot.

So much blood...

Eddie walked out of the apartment and saw the old woman against the wall. He grumbled at her for waking him up, then saw Kenzie. He froze when he saw that she was looking over his handiwork. How would she react to this, he wondered. He leaned against the door frame and waited for her inevitable scream of terror.

It never came.

Slightly agitated by the silence, he kept waiting, and crossed his arms.

Kenzie wanted to scream, but something in her mind kept her from doing so. She tried to figure out what exactly what she was feeling, and for some reason it was difficult. Was she scared, angry, sad, happy, anything? No, none of those.

She didn't feel anything.

Her pulse remained surprisingly normal. She shook, yes, and the scene was certainly disturbing. But she didn't feel anything.

Kenzie stepped inside the room, and felt her foot touch the dried blood on the carpet. It didn't effect her. Her mind was to numb. Too distant from where she actually was. She stepped on something soft, and wet. She looked down.

She had stepped on Morris' hand.

"Huh..." was her response, and she wondered why his body was torn apart in the first place. "Weird..."

Eddie watched her search the apartment in utter shock and slight revulsion. Why was she not screaming and cowering like the little old lady in the hall? Why wasn't she crying her eyes out or shaking in terror? Why was she so calm in this situation? And why the _fuck_ was she walking around in _that_?

Eddie was beginning to seriously reconsider this girl's entire mind set when Kenzie found the old man's head on the coffee table.

She poked it.

Eddies eyes became wide when he saw that gesture of curiosity. It was like she wanted to know what a severed head felt like.

Kenzie began to back away from the room, blood staining her feet and the hem of her pajama pants. When she reached the doorway, she bumped into something. She looked slowly behind her to see Eddie standing there. She didn't know how to describe his expression. It seemed almost like a mix of surprise, anger, and complete interest. She then thought that he may have seen her explore the blood soaked room, and she gave a shaky smile.

"It's...happened before..." she said, and fell into unconsciousness.

Eddie caught her before she fell to the ground in a heap, and picked her up bridal style.

"Damn, you're so annoying it's not even funny." he muttered.

"Lawrence...oh, Lawrence..." the old woman sobbed, and she tried to stand up, but she just fell again. Eddie rolled his eyes. He would have to help of that broad, to.

"Great..."

He looked down at Kenzie's sleeping face, wondering exactly what she meant by her last words.

"What the hell is hiding in that fucked up mind of yours, Marks?" he asked. Her docile expression said nothing back, and he sighed.

Hours later, Kenzie opened her eyes to see the white ceiling of the living room. She rubbed her eyes, but stayed down.

"Fucked up nightmare..." she said, remembering walking through blood and parts. She narrowed her eyes at the thought. It felt so real. Of course, dreams of the past always seemed real. She sighed.

She hadn't dreamed of her father in a long time...

"Kenzie..." Eddies voice say from her right. She looked over to see him sitting on the coffee table and looking straight at her. His expression was serious.

"Hey, why so serious, bucko? And did I sleepwalk into the living room or something?" she asked, and sat up. She saw her feet.

They were covered in blood.

"Ho-

-ly

shit..."

The full memory rushed forward and she became dizzy.

"Did that actually happen..." she said weakly. It wasn't even a question. She just said it to say it. Eddie nodded.

"Yeah, that happened..."

"So...Morris..."

"Is dead...yes..."

"And he was...mur..."

"Murdered, yes..."

"And I walked in...it?"

"Yes."

"Oh, god..."

"Yeah, that's about it. I want you to keep your mouth shut until they're done talking with me, alright? You'll be next to me, so just play along." he said quietly. Kenzie was about to ask 'what' and 'who', but a police officer walked up and Eddie gave her a glare that was enough to shut her up for a month.

"Alright, who will talk first?" the cop said. Eddie raised his hand slightly. The officer nodded and pulled out a pad and pen. "So, what happened this morning?"

Eddie explained about the scream and running out to the hallway, and explained how Kenzie had ran into the room.

"She ran into the room?" the cop looked to Kenzie and her feet.

"Yeah, but I think she was hoping to find Morris alive. We were all friends, you see." Eddie said, and glanced to Kenzie. She understood. Once again, a lie would be more sensible than the truth. How would they look at her if she explained that she simply walked around curiously.

"Yeah," The cop said. "Well, I'll need her explanation, since her footprints are in the room." he said, and turned to Kenzie.

"Um, yeah, well. I saw the woman, and went to Morris' door. When I saw the blood, I rushed in to see if he was okay. When I found him dead, I looked to see if anyone else was there. No one was. I walked back to the hallway and passed out. And now I'm sitting here, dazed and confused beyond all belief..." she looked wide-eyed to her lap. "Who would do that?" she asked. One answer came to mind, but she shook that persons name from her thoughts.

That was the last thing she wanted to talk about.

"Alright, and did you tell me everything? You're sure you left nothing out?"

"Yes. I'm sure." Kenzie said.

"Officer, we gave you everything we know." Eddie said. The cop nodded and headed for the door.

"We may call you if we need anything else." he said.

"And we'll try our best to accommodate you. Goodbye, officer."

The officer tipped his hat and left the apartment. Kenzie could see multiple officials crowding the hallway while they made their investigation before the door closed and blocked her view. She lay back down on the couch and groaned.

"Kenzie..." Eddie's voice was beyond serious.

"Yeah?" she asked, angry that her voice sounded so weak.

"You said something before you passed out." he said.

"I don't remember..." she said, trying to remember what she may have said.

"'It's happened before.' That's what you said."

She froze.

Wow, she was really out of it earlier...

"Kenzie..." Eddie walked to the couch and sat on the armrest. He crossed his arms and looked at her. She looked back. "Is there something you're keeping from me?" he asked.

"No."

Yes.

"Are you lying to me?" Eddie asked.

"No."

Yes.

"You are."

"I'm not."

He always knew when she lied.

"I know you're lying."

"I know you know."

"So tell me." Eddie was getting agitated. He needed to know.

"None of your business, Eddie. It's nothing for you to worry about." Kenzie said. Eddie sputtered.

"You walked around that shit as calm as fucking possible, earlier. And then you say it's happened before like it was nothing. What the fuck, Kenzie?" He clenched his hands into fists, and bit back his anger, swearing to remain calm.

Kenzie looked up at him, also angry. She sat back up, and put on a deadly look. '

"Edward Brock..._drop_..._it_..." she hissed, and walked to her room, slamming the door behind her and leaving Eddie in dead silence. She only used his full name when she was immensely pissed off. He growled low, wanting to walk into her room and break her fingers.

A small pain in the palms of his hands caught his attention. He looked at his palms and saw that his fingernails had cut into his skin, leaving little red, crescent shaped cuts. He bared his teeth, and the cuts healed.

"Bitch..." he whispered, and went to his own room. He needed to destroy something before he destroyed his apartment and outted himself to Kenzie and the rest of the building. He needed to go out for a while and blow some steam...

Kenzie sat on her bed and smacked herself on the forehead.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, _stupid_ me.." she said, and covered her face with her pillow. She couldn't believe it. They just started being a 'thing' and she already started a fight with him. It wasn't even close to his fault that it started. He was only concerned. She acted weird, said something weird, so he had a right to ask why, right? Right.

And what did she do?

She went super-bitch and stormed off like a three-year-old child.

But she had to. If she said anything, she'd be in trouble. With Eddie, with the law...

With _him_...

She frowned. No, he wouldn't give a shit. Not at this point. He figured he did her a favor...

And he did...

Kenzie rubbed the spot on her forehead where she had hit herself. She sighed, and lay down on the bed. Why did the giant catastrophe have to happen in this building. Was he trying to contact her? No, he didn't kill unnecessarily. He would have just met with her and talked. He was always straightforward with her, no matter the circumstances. That much she could trust him with.

"Unless he's even more crazy than he used to be..." she muttered, and lay down to stare up at the ceiling. "I need to apologize..." the thought made her feel sick. She hated apologies. They always made her feel worse because she barely ever meant them anyway, and she just figured she was lying heartlessly to those she said her sorrys to. She would mean it to Brock, though. Maybe that would make the situation a little easier to get through.

She doubted it.

Practicing what she would say in her mind, she walked out of her bedroom to the living room. He wasn't there, so she figured he was in his bedroom. The door was closed, and she knocked lightly.

"Eddie?" she called softly. No answer. She knocked again, a little louder this time. "Hey, Eddie, I'm sorry. Can we talk, please?" Still, silence. She huffed angrily, and turned the knob. The door opened and she walked in. "Hey, I know I was harsh earlier, but you don't have to give me the silent trea-" she stopped her words.

He wasn't in the room.

Her brow furrowed. His bathroom door was open and the light off. The window was open a crack, but it always was. She closed the door and looked in the living room again, then checked the hall bathroom, whose door was also open and empty.

Eddie wasn't in the apartment.

Kenzie walked to the entrance door and opened it. Officials still crowded the crime scene, taking pictures, notes, and evidence. One of the officers walked up to her and pointed back to her apartment.

"Sorry, miss, but I need you to return to your place until this is all cleared. It shouldn't be but a few more hours."

"Yeah, but did a built guy with blonde hair walk out of here?" she asked. The cop shook his head.

"If I saw him I would have did the same to him that I'm doing to you. He may have slipped by, but I doubt it, with all these people. Good afternoon." he said, and left her. She closed the door and went to the couch. She saw Eddie's cellphone on the coffee table and sighed.

Great. Once again, she didn't know where he was, and no explaination for how he even became missing.

"Nice, I'm dating Harry fucking Houdini..." she said, and turned on the television. The news popped up, and the reporter seemed rushed as she told the breaking news.

Venom had just destroyed a police station, and six people were reported dead.


	8. Stress Release

When Eddie returned to his room, he closed the window shut behind him and headed for the door to the living room. As soon as he touched the doorknob his senses went hay-wire. He stopped himself, and listened closely.

"Yeah, I checked his room and everything, Mary Jane. He isn't here. And the cop said he didn't see anybody leave the hallway. He might have snuck past them, but I don't know. I don't like these disappearing acts he's pulling..." Kenzie said on the other side of the door in the living room. Eddie cursed. He forgot to lock his door. Now he had to go the long way around.

Fucking perfect...

"Yeah, guys are so weird like that.." Mary Jane said on the phone. Kenzie nodded.

"I hate that..."

"So, are you two like, a 'thing' now or something?" Mary Jane asked. Kenzie blushed and didn't answer. Mary Jane chuckled. "I knew it. Harry owes me ten bucks. Thanks for helping me win my bet. So who asked? That's another bet." Kenzie smirked.

"He did, well, he started it at least." she said.

"Oooo. Now Gwen owes me fifteen. You're a lucky bet, Marks. So he took the direct approach, huh?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Well either he kissed you or he didn't."

"He did."

"How was it?"

"Surprising."

"Oh, he snuck up on you. Bold move. I expected that from him, ha. That's why I just made a total of twenty-five big ones."

"I'm glad you're so happy about this." Kenzie said, rolling her eyes.

"Not as happy as you, I'm sure..." Mary Jane said suggestively.

"Hey, kid, you shouldn't even be thinking about stuff like that. You're a highschooler. Keep your head in the books and outta the gutter." Kenzie said sternly. Mary Jane laughed.

"I don't know at all what you're talking about, Kenzie." she teased.

"I'm sure..."

Kenzie heard the door open and she spun around to see Eddie walk in with a surly look on his face. She sighed in relief. "That's Eddie." she said to the phone.

"Your sigh said it all, dear. I'll talk to you later then."

"Bye, and thanks."

Kenzie hung up and set the phone on the table. She felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders.

"Hey." she said, deciding to leave the whole disappearing act in the past for both their sakes. A grunt from Eddie was her response. She frowned, and looked out the window. "Are you alright? I heard Venom went on another rampage and killed more people than usual..." she said.

"Yeah, fine. I stayed away from that part of town." he said, and sat on the couch as far away from her as possible.

"I wonder why he did that, killed all those people..." she said.

"Probably just blowing off some steam..."

"For what, I wonder."

"Someone might have made him mad."

"That's apparent, but why hurt all those people and not go after the reason he's angry?" she asked.

"Maybe he can't..." Eddie's hands balled to fists.

"He can't get to it? Or is it too difficult to harm?" Kenzie touched her chin in thought. Eddie sighed angrily.

"_Or,_ maybe it's right next to him and he can't do anything to it because it would destroy his whole set-up, even though he would like nothing more than to throttle it and tear it to pieces. _So_, he takes it out on those who don't deserve it, not that he would give a flying fuck anyway. And why do you need to know about this guy all of a sudden?"

"Aren't you just as happy as a daisy..." Kenzie said with a smirk. Eddie's eye twitched, and he took a deep breath.

"S-sorry...Just...wound up at the moment..." he hadn't gotten it all out of his system. He would have, had Spiderman not shown up to worsen his mood...

"Eddie, you're different..." Kenzie's words made him bite hit lip.

"How-how do you mean?" he touched his forehead, his anger rising.

"You used to be so much more...nicer...calmer..."

"Really?" his tone was even, and he looked calm, but his anger was nearly at its peak. He wanted to leave...

"Even now you're pissed off. You probably want to hit me, huh?"

He stopped moving completely, and looked at her.

"_What?_"

"Why are you so mad? Is it because of earlier?" she looked at him, not in anger or bitterness or sadness. Just curiosity. She wanted to understand, that was all. Eddie became flustered.

"I-I don't-"

"If it is, then I'm sorry. I apologize." she said. Eddie stopped all thought and leaned back in the couch. He stared forward. What the fuck...

"What..."

"I'm sorry for snapping. It's just this is stuff I'm not ready to be talking about with anybody at all. We all have our secrets, Eddie."

"Yeah...I know..."

"So, are we cool now?" Kenzie tried to figure out his face while he contemplated his answer.

"Cool...yeah..." he lied. Nothing was cool. Everything was far from _cool_ right now. So why was his anger dropping? Just the thought of it going away made him want to be mad again, but the anger kept lowering without his consent. He looked at Kenzie. What the fuck was she pulling?

Kenzie looked at his face. It was still angry, with a drab of confusion mixed in. She touched his arm and felt him tense. Wow...really? She leaned over to him until her face was inched from his. He blinked. She blinked.

"You got a deal or something?" she asked.

"You're the one putting your face in mine."

"And you're the one who goes Mr. Freeze every time I lay a hand on you."

"You're weird, that's why."

"So you'll always tense when I touch you? Are you that uptight now?"

"Are you that annoying?"

"Yes. Does that bother you?"

"Yes."

"Get over it."

"_You think you can_-"

"Tell me to get over it."

"...what?"

"Tell me to get over your weirdness. I promise I will."

"Get over it."

"Louder, please."

"Get over it."

"Can't quite hear you, hun-"

"Get over it!"

"Ah. There we go."

Kenzie lay her head on Eddie's lap and crossed her arms. She looked up at his surprised face and grinned.

"Problem solved." she said. Eddie rested his chin on his hand and hooded his eyes at her. This girl was completely insane. He thought he knew her. Now he knew he didn't, and that agitated him. How was he supposed to keep control of his pawn if he knew nothing about it? He huffed at his predicament and resolved to look into her records while he was out next.

Kenzie still saw annoyance in Eddie's eyes, and she sighed. She reached up and grabbed his shirt, then pulled him down closer to her. She lifted her head and kissed him.

Once again Eddie's mind was invaded by Kenzie's chaotic emotions. Everything she felt, he saw and touched, each emotion wrapping and zig-zagging around him like pieces of yarn. The rage was closer this time. He could feel it. But which piece of yarn was it? He couldn't tell as all the emotions tangled, intersected and tied together in intricate knots that lead to a new product for him to decipher.

Kenzie brought her hand under his shirt, but he barely noticed. He didn't notice doing the same thing. He forgot how the couch became his bed, forgot where his shirt had gone. He wasn't really paying attention to his actions or hers. He only cared about finding her rage, which was becoming more and more difficult as he searched. It was fading away again. He cursed as it was fully shrouded by everything else. It was gone. What was left was mixtures of primitive emotions. Carnal, they may have been, but not as carnal as that damned ever elusive rage. That strand of thin yarn that housed her anger, hatred, and even the smallest shred of evil that he knew she had.

Eddie began to search farther in her subconscious, but was stopped by something. He turned, and saw Kenzie standing there. She was looking around confused.

"What is all of this..." she asked quietly, and touched one of the yarn strands. Eddie suddenly felt saddened, and became confused. Kenzie touched another strand, and he felt anger tug on his mind. He blinked. They were in his mind. _She_ was in his mind. "Weird dream..." she said quietly, and strummed an entire row of strings, sending Eddie into a spasm of different feelings meshed horribly together. It was too painful.

He woke up.

He was shaking, and he was holding tightly onto something He looked up to inspect where he was. When had he gone to the bedroom? He looked down, and saw that he was holding Kenzie against him. She was asleep, and her eyelids fluttered continuously as she continued the rem cycle of her slumber. Eddie was surprised. They were sleeping together, in his bed...

And they were naked.

He groaned, and slacked his grip on her, then pulled away, making sure not to wake her.

"So, _that_ happened..." he muttered. Fucking wonderful.

'It wasn't so bad...' it said in his mind.

"Yeah..." he muttered.

'She possesses excellent stamina.'

"That's nice." Eddie said, and stared up at the ceiling. Even though his mind was pissed, his body felt oddly relaxed...tired, even. His eyes narrowed. That was because of her...

'Even managed to wriggle into our mind when she fell asleep. That should not have happened.'

"I was too far into her mind to be able to monitor ours. Simple slip-up. Won't happen again..."

'Even you doubt your own words, Brock...'

"I'm not doubting." Eddie said a little loudly. Kenzie stirred, but continued to sleep. Eddie relaxed, and continued to glare at the ceiling.

'Control issues, hnnn...' it said, and tsked. Eddie would have replied, but Kenzie turned and draped her arm over his chest. His anger drained once again. He looked at her still sleeping face, and grimaced.

"Say what you want. I'm going to sleep..." he said to it, and closed his eyes.

The next day, Kenzie found herself in Mary Jane's room, looking at sleek dresses.

"So, which one do you want to go in, huh?" Mary Jane asked. Kenzie shrugged. There were so many.

"It's just a club, Mary Jane. I'll go in pants and a shirt, like I always do." she said.

"Hey, I don't accept that. You're a young college student. Start acting like one." M.J. said and picked up a blue dress. She studied it for a second, then threw it back onto the bed. "Too long, and clashes with your hair..." Kenzie sat on the bed and looked at the dresses.

"How do you afford all this stuff?" she asked. Mary Jane smiled at her.

"Discount stores have more than just junk, hun. You just need to learn where to look...here's one..." Mary Jane picked up a black dress with white stripes and a black sash in the middle. It was knee length and had only one strap that wrapped from the right breast area over the left shoulder to the middle of the back.

"Too fancy..." Kenzie said.

"What are you talking about? It's the perfect party dress. Slim, but comfortable. You're just not used to wearing nice things." Mary Jane said, looking at Kenzie's purple skinny jeans and black shirt that said "Reaper's Demise" on it in red. "And apparently you're not used to wearing anything that matches..." Mary Jane added.

"I'm not interested in matching clothes. They're boring. And I hate fancy clothes. They're too...blegh..." Kenzie stuck her tongue out. Mary Jane smirked and held the dress up.

"Try it on. You'll get used to it..." she said. Kenzie glowered at the red head before taking the dress and heading to the bathroom.

"You couldn't do this with Gwen, could you?" she asked.

"I tackled Gwen's wardrobe ages ago, and believe you me, she put up more of a fight than you did. Had to chase her down just to get her into heels-"

"I have to wear heels?"

"And I might have to chase _you_, to..." Mary Jane muttered.

When Kenzie walked out of the bathroom, she felt weird. Mary Jane beamed at her.

"Perfect." sh said, and spun Kenzie slowly around to get a full view. "Now if we can just tame that hair for the evening..." she said. Kenzie frowned. She liked her long ringlets, and they weren't frizzy at least.

"What about the hair..." she asked.

"I just want to straighten the bangs and put your hair in a nice ponytail. That's all." Mary Jane reassured. Kenzie frowned.

"This is nuts..."

"So, are you feeling alright? I mean, after all that mess that happened on your floor, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't go with us tonight." Mary Jane said. Kenzie nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I barely knew the guy, but it was still messed up. I freaked out, and Eddie must feel bad, since he and that guy were friends in a sense. I'm more worried about him than me right now."

"Yeah, I can understand that. He just needs time, that's all. You both do."

Kenzie nodded, and curled her hair around her finger.

"Eddie..."

...

A/N: Sorry for the chapter's lateness! Had a tough time with it. Thank you for the reviews. They're super appreciated! :D


	9. Taking Punches

That night, Eddie arrived to the club agitated. He hadn't been able to find anything out about Kenzie that he didn't already know. He stepped out of his car and adjusted his jacket. This was going to suck.

"Hey, Eddie!" Harry called from the entrance. Parker was with him. Eddie smirked. Maybe this would be more fun than he thought...

He jogged up to them and smiled. "How are things? Where's the girls?" he asked. Parker glared at him, and Harry smiled.

"We're waiting for them, haha. You know how chicks are." he said. Eddie nodded.

"And how exactly _are_ chicks, Harry?" came a voice. The three guys looked over to see Mary Jane, Gwen, and Kenzie walking towards them. Harry grinned.

"Lovely, as always." he said.

"Good answer." Mary Jane said. She wore a short red dress that reached her mid thigh, and Gwen wore a green one that reached just past her knees. Her hair was free of its usual hair band, and her glasses were gone. "Sorry about Kenzie's cover-up." Mary Jane said, pointing to the coat that hid Kenzie's dress from view. "She's just worried about her reputation as a badass."

Eddie snorted. "Really?" he asked. Kenzie walked up and punched him in the arm.

"Girly looking or not, I'll beat the hell out of you..." she said. Mary Jane grabbed Kenzie's arm and pushed her towards the entrance. As she did, she looked at Eddie and winked.

"Don't worry, she'll be much cuter when we're inside." she said, and continued on. Eddie raised a brow, not remembering ever seeing Kenzie in a dress.

"Whatever.." he muttered. He didn't care.

"What was that, Brock?" Peter asked casually. Eddie shot him a look and walked toward the entrance. Peter fell into step next to him.

"Be good, Parker. Bad things can happen, and I won't care a bit." he said quietly.

"Bad things like what you did to that old man?" Peter asked. Eddie smirked. So he knew it was him that did that...

"Exactly like that." Eddie hissed suggestively, then pointed to Kenzie. "Only it won't be an old man this time..."

"You're a monster."

"You're a shit-head."

"Fuck you."

"No thanks, I already have someone to do that with." Eddie said, pointing one last time to Kenzie. "Excellent stamina, that one."

Peter wanted to throw up. They...did that...He couldn't believe it. Anger filled his veins and he wanted badly to fight Venom right there and expose him to everyone.

He wanted especially to expose him to Kenzie.

But he couldn't do that. In the process of revealing Brock's identity, he would end up revealing his own, and he couldn't do that, no matter how many people got hurt in the process. It wasn't a selfish act, because he wouldn't be able to save this city from Venom or anybody if Peter Parker was trapped behind bars. He needed to destroy Venom from behind the scenes, without revealing either of them.

And that was difficult as hell.

When they were inside, Eddie and Peter saw that everyone else had seated themselves at a booth in the back. Kenzie had removed her coat, and it sat folded in her lap. Eddie froze when he saw her up close, and she blushed. Mary Jane scoffed.

"Jeez, Eddie, cat got your tongue?" she asked. Harry and Gwen sniggered. Eddie sighed and sat down next to Kenzie.

"You look nice." he said to her with a smile. He wouldn't say he was lying, but he wouldn't admit he was telling the truth, either.

"Uh, thanks, I guess..." she said back.

"Uh, so, Eddie, are you feeling okay?" Gwen asked from across the table. Peter rested his chin on his hand.

"Yeah, Eddie, how are you feeling..." he asked. There was a sarcastic glint in Peter's eye, and Eddie caught it. He growled in his mind.

"I'm doing okay. Morris was a good neighbor and all, but like they say, one must move on eventually, and I intend on doing that." he said. A young woman brought them all drinks, and left them alone again. Kenzie took a sip of the cider, and smiled.

"What's so funny, hun?" Mary Jane asked. Kenzie shook her head.

"Nothing, it's just the first time I tried cider, I got a horrible case of the hiccups and Eddie made fun of me like crazy..." she said, and looked up at Eddie. "Remember that? We were, like, ten or something." she said. Eddie smirked, and said nothing.

"That's cute." Gwen said. Suddenly Kenzie hiccuped, and she blushed furiously.

"Aw, shit..." she muttered, and covered her mouth. Eddie smiled fully.

"You should stay clear of carbonated beverages." he suggested. She smacked his shoulder with her free hand.

"Lemme out so I can go get some water." she said. Eddie stood.

"I could go get it if you w-"

"Nope. Just hang out here. I'll be right back." Kenzie said before he could finish, and she walked to the bar area. He sat back down and watched her go.

"Sooo, you guys getting pretty serious?" Mary Jane asked. He raised a brow.

"You could say that." he replied, knowing his answer would bring discomfort to Parker.

"Well, she's a good girl. Don't hurt her, Brock, or I'll come after you." Mary Jane warned teasingly, and winked. Peter nodded at this.

"Very true." he said, and looked threateningly at Eddie, who only smiled back.

"I would never dream about doing something like that." he said.

'We'd much rather do it than dream it, anyway...' it said in his mind. He gave a short laugh, and took a drink from his cider.

"Thank you so much." Kenzie said to the tender, and took the glass of water gratefully. After a few drinks, and some forcefully calm breathing, the hiccups subsided. She gave the empty glass back and began to walk back to the table.

"Hey, pretty lady." said someone. Kenzie turned to see a tall man walking to her. He stopped in front of her and swept back a strand of his dark brown hair. "How are you doin' this fine evening?" he asked in a texan accent. Kenzie huffed and tapped her foot.

"Fine, I need to go now. My boyfriend is waiting for me." she said, putting great emphasis on 'boyfriend'. The man tsked, and shifted his weight.

"He's not here right this moment, is he?" he asked. Kenzie looked the man up and down. He looked to be in his early thirties, and seemed uncomfortable in the nice clothes he wore. She figured this must have been his first time in a place like this.

"Look, buddy. You're too old for me, and this club, trust me. You should try somewhere more your speed if you want to pick anyone up." she said, and tried to move toward the table. The man stepped in front of her.

"Just one dance, if you will." he said, and rested his hand on her shoulder. Kenzie narrowed her eyes.

"I can scream rape right now and you'll have cuffs on you in seconds..." she said. The man smiled.

"Yes, but I've been told you're more sophisticated then that." he said. She furrowed her brow, and tried to back away.

"Get away from me." she demanded. He stepped toward her and grabbed her arm.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." he said, and his grip tightened before she could yank her arm free. Kenzie panicked, and felt her heart slam against her chest.

"Eddie..." she said nervously. The man smiled wider at this.

"What was that, darlin'?" he asked. Kenzie swallowed.

"Eddie!" she called.

Almost instantly after that outburst, the man was ripped from her sight and slammed against the wall. Eddie held him against it, looking livid. Some people looked at the scene in slight worry. Eddie didn't give a shit.

"Got a problem here, asshole?" he hissed. The man smiled, his hands in the air.

"You're the boyfriend?" he asked. Eddie nodded stiffly.

"I see..." the man said, and quickly brought his hand down on Eddie's arm. Eddie let him go in surprise and looked at his arm. There was a small scratch, tat was all. He looked to see the man running to the exit, an opened pocket knife in his hand. If he hadn't had the symbiotic cells in his blood, the scratch would have been more of a bloody gash. He was thankful that all that was damaged was the jacket.

Eddie began to run after the man, but Kenzie grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"Let him go, Eddie. He's just a creep. Let me look at your arm." she said. She pulled up his sleeve and checked the scratch. "Wow, hank goodness he's weak." she said.

"Yeah...weak.." he muttered.

'And without a scent. We won't be able to find him...' it said in his mind. Eddie was curious about that. How did that freak not have a scent?

"Hey, are you two okay?" Harry asked. He and the others walked quickly to them, worry on their faces. Kenzie smiled.

"Yeah, we're fine. Eddie saved me from a creep."

"Jeez, you two can't seem to catch a break." Gwen said.

"I wonder why.." Peter said, and looked accusingly at Eddie, who grunted.

"Don't start with me Parker. I'm already on the edge. Don't push me over it." he said.

"Okay, what the hell is with you two?" Mary Jane asked angrily. "You've been like this for weeks. Either talk about it, or drop it, dammit."

"Not that simple. M.J.." Peter said.

"Then what is it, Peter?" Kenzie asked.

"No ones concern but Brocks and mine..." Peter replied.

"For now..." Eddie said with a smirk. Peter saw him glance once at Kenzie when he said this.

"What are you trying to say?" Peter asked angrily.

"Just saying that your attitude might end up _dragging others into this, _if you know what I mean..." Brock said with a shrug. Peter looked once at Kenzie.

"You better fucking not..." he said. Eddie cocked his head to the side.

"And what would you do? Not like you would be able to _sense that_, anyway."

"What are you two talking ab-" Kenzie stopped when she saw Peter lunge at Eddie. She didn't even feel herself move forward. Didn't notice herself shield Eddie.

She _did_ notice the blunt pain that hit her in the abdomen.

That shit fucking hurt.

"Aw, fuck..." she gasped, the air escaping her lungs temporarily. She knelt down, her arms crossed over her stomach. Sound was muffled, and she barely heard Mary Jane and Gwen call her name in fear. She felt their hands on her back, trying to help her. She looked up and saw Eddie.

She never saw him so furious. Harry was barely even holding him back, and she felt the only reason why Eddie wasn't hitting the shit out of Parker was because he himself was holding himself back.

Just barely.

Gwen and Mary Jane helped her up, and they watched as the tender and some workers at the club tell Eddie and Peter to leave. People watched as the two were ushered out, Harry keeping between both of them.

"C'mon, we better help Harry, or he might be turned into a stain." Mary Jane said. Kenzie nodded, sucking in air, and wincing every few steps.

"I gotta say...Parker has some power in his punches..." she muttered, and coughed. "But, I've been hit harder by littler guys than him..." she attempted a smile, but it faded when her stomach clenched, shooting more pain through her. "Ooooow..."

"You should probably go to the hospital." Gwen said.

"No...I'm fine. I just want to go home..." Kenzie said.

"Sorry about tonight. Our attempt to cheer you up kind of backfired, didn't it?" Mary Jane asked.

"Just a little..." Kenzie said. "At least it was interesting..."

"I can't believe Peter did that." Gwen whispered. Kenzie shook her head.

"Don't blame him. He swung at Brock and I got in the way. No way would he be able to stop a punch like that." she said.

"Yeah, well, he's still shouldn't have been an ass." Mary Jane said.

"That I can agree with."

When they walked outside, they saw Peter and Eddie staring hard at each other from a few feet away. Harry stood between them, looking rather disgruntled.

"Mary Jane. Help..." he said weakly when he spotted the girls. Mary Jane rolled her eyes.

"That's enough, boys. Osborn's about to die from fear, and Kenzie needs to go home and lay down for a while..." she said. They didn't move. Harry sighed.

Kenzie eased herself away from Mary Jane and Gwen, attempting to stand on her own. It hurt, but she was fine. She walked over to Eddie and rest a hand on his shoulder, remaining silent. It's what she did when they were children. Whenever he would almost get in a fight, which was rare, she would stand next to him for a moment, and they would leave soon after. She heard Eddie huff after a few moments, and he turned toward her.

"Let's go..." he said. She nodded, and waved goodbye to the others as they walked to his car..

"I'm taking the day off tomorrow, Parker." Kenzie said to Peter. "Have fun telling Jameson that..."

"Yeah..." Peter said. He looked where he hit her before she covered the area with her arm and walked with Eddie to his car. If it weren't for his senses, he wouldn't have been able to pull back his punch, and she would have needed an ambulance. He wondered if that was the reason Brock went berserk when he saw her fall to the floor. "Getting protective, Brock..." Peter said quietly.

Brock helped Kenzie into the car and got in himself afterward, closing his door harder than was necessary. He looked where she held her arms, and scowled.

"How bad is it?" he asked, looking to the road. Kenzie watched the orange lights of the street lamps pass by them. It was oddly comforting.

"Not so bad. I'll have a bruise, definitely, but that's about it." she said. "Takes more than a woosy punch like that to take me out."

"Yeah, sure." Eddie muttered, and kept his eyes forward. Kenzie tried to sit up, and winced. Eddie saw it from the corner of his eye. "You said it wasn't bad." he said.

"It's just sore, hun. Don't go crazy over some sore muscles." she whispered back. "I'm so tired. Who knew getting felt up by a weirdo and punched by another weirdo could drain your energy so much?" she tried to laugh at herself, but winced again. "Ugh, it hurts to laugh, and I love laughing. Fuuuuck..." She closed her eyes and leaned her head on the window.

"Thank you..."

Kenzie's eyes fluttered open.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Thank you...for...doing that back there." Eddie said, and tightened his grip on the wheel. He hated giving thanks. He felt Kenzie's hand touch his shoulder. She kept her gaze fixed on the orange lights.

"You do a lot for me, Eddie. I have to do what I can for you, to. It's what you do when you care about someone." she said, and grinned. "Besides, we've been partners in crime since we were tots. It'd be a shame if we just stopped helping each other out, you know? Gotta stick together, and all that nonsense." Eddie glanced at her large smile, and felt that feeling well up again, and this time he couldn't push it down. He tried, with everything, to accomplish it.

In the end, it stayed, and Eddie leaned back in his seat, quite agitated.

That damned emotion finally won.

Shit...

...

The man walked to the phone booth, his pocket knife now held securely in a plastic bag. Once in the booth, he dialed the number he was instructed to dial, and waited for someone to pick up.

Someone did.

"What is it?" a voice drawled. The man held the plastic bag up to view the knife. A small amount of dried blood clung to the blade edge.

"Tell M.P. I got what he wanted. I'll be there in 'bout an hour, alright?" The man said in his texan accent.

"Were you followed?" The voice asked boredly.

"Nope. That stuff worked like a charm, I recon."

"Fine, get back here quickly. He's _agitated._.." the voice said, and hung up. The man looked at the phone, tsked, and set it back on the rest before exiting.

"That guy is always agitated..." he mumbled.


	10. Getting Snatched

"Eddie, grab that." Kenzie pointed to the top shelf to a box of instant mashed potatoes. He reached up and took it.

"I hate mashed potatoes..." He muttered, handing her the box. She placed the item in the cart and walked forward.

"I know, but I like them, so I'll make some for me with dinner." she said, and grabbed a package of gravy.

"Fun." Eddie muttered, and followed her through the store. He didn't want to come, but he had nothing else to do. Well, he certainly had other things to do, but he needed to stay with Kenzie for a while, at least until the bruise on her stomach was nearly gone. She claimed she felt fine, but Eddie knew she was lying when he saw her sorry attempts to hide her pain when she walked. He growled inside at the thought of it. Maybe he would need to punch Parker until his ribs turned to mush later on...

"You could have stayed home, or went to visit the lab. You don't have to follow me around like a duckling."

"Home is dull and the lab is the same." Eddie said, and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. Kenzie cast him a worried look.

"You love the lab, Eddie. You always used to talk so excitedly about it. What changed?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I just don't like it there anymore, that's all."

"Alright..." she said, and looked back to the shelves. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's nothing for you to worry about, Kenzie. Seriously, I hate that you worry about me so much." he muttered. She gave him a stern look before taking a jar of peanut butter.

"Well, that's just something you need to get over." she said. She reached over and placed the peanut butter in the cart. She winced slightly when the bruise hit the bar. Eddie touched her back.

"Ae you alright?" he asked. She put on a smile.

"And you tell me I worry too much. Just a pot calling the kettle black, I swear." she said, and pushed the cart further along.

"I have a right to be worried. It's been two days and you're still walking lightly to keep from buckling over."

"Eddie, it's fine, I mean it. Bruises are like that for the first few days. The pain'll be gone in not time."

"Whateve-" Eddie was stopped when Kenzie suddenly whipped around and wrapped her arms around his waist. Some old women saw and shook their heads in disapproval, their minds trapped in the time when actions like that were considered obscene when performed in public. Eddie shot a venomous glare at them, and they quickened their pace to leave. He looked down at Kenzie, who's face was buried in his chest. "What?"

"Just chill out, you big dork..." Kenzie murmured. He felt her lips move against his chest, and he would have purred had he been a cat. Damn her strange abilities to calm him down.

"Fine..."

"Good." Kenzie pulled away and grabbed the cart again. He almost wished she hadn't. He followed her yet again, keeping one eye on how she moved, determining exactly how much pain she was in. He shook his head and sighed after a few moments.

'We'll kill him when the chance comes.' it said in his mind. Eddie nodded in silent agreement.

"Oh, my goodness! Manners, young man!" said one of the old women from down the aisle. Eddie looked curiously behind him to see what was going on.

"What the hell..." he narrowed his eyes at the figure that nudged the old woman. They were dressed in red yellow, their face covered, and goggles over their eyes.

"My apologies, young lady." the figure said, and kept walking toward Eddie and Kenzie. Eddie immediately stepped closer to Kenzie. She noticed the loseness and looked up in question.

"Wanna nother hug, or somethin'?" she asked with a smile, then frowned at his serious expression. "What is it.?"

"Nothing, just keep walking." he replied stiffly, and pushed her gently but firmly forward.

"But I still need to get-"

"Later, I'm feeling claustrophobic at the moment. Let's come back when the aisle's emptier." he said.

"But it's almost empt-"

"Just walk, please!" Eddie kept pushing her, and she decided to just go with it for the moment. Eddie kept looking back at the figure. He knew who that was.

Shocker...

He tried to pick up a scent, but there was none. He narrowed his eyes. Again, with the lack of scent. What the hell was going on?

"Uh, Eddie." Kenzie retrieved his attention, and he looked to what she was pointing at in front of them. His eyes widened. "Is that Rhino, or just a circus freak?" Kenzie asked.

The large form called Rhino stood at the end of the aisle. His face was the only part of his body anyone could see, and the rest of his body was encased in thick armor that even Spiderman couldn't penetrate. A large , sharp metal horn protruded from the top of his head. What shocked Eddie was that Rhino had no scent either. He curled his lip angrily.

Eddie grabbed Kenzie's shoulder and placed her against the shelves. He moved in front of her as a shield. He could hear people shrieking and running away at the sight of the villains, and knew Spiderman would be there in a matter of minutes.

"Aw, ain't dat cute. Protectin' the lady like dat." Rhino said loudly, and began to walk forward, making the ground quake a little with each step.

"Amazin' how a fellow such as yourself can be such a gentleman, Mr. Brock." Shocker said in a thick texan accent. He to, walked toward them. "I truly commend you." he added.

"Too bad it ain't gonna do much good." Rhino said, and chuckled.

"You see, we need the little lady to come with us, sir, whether you like that or not." Shocker said. "Don' worry now, we'll have her back by supper time, I promise you."

Eddie growled and back against Kenzie. He felt she was shaking, and he became angry. "What do you need with her?" he rasped. Shocker put his hands in the air and stopped walking.

"Now, we only need to talk. That's all. Our boss needs to get some information from her regarding personal matters between them and them only." he said. Eddie didn't budge.

"I don't think so." he snarled. Shocker tsked and shook his head sadly.

"He said it would come to this. Too bad you were unreasonable." He said, and opened his hand. A ball of electricity formed and he raised it in the air like he was about to throw the sphere. Eddie smirked. That would only tickle.

"Eddie!" Kenzie shouted. He looked at her to see she was staring at Rhino. He barely even glanced at the behemoth before he felt a sharp pain his his head. The world went black, and he cursed as he fell to the floor and into unconsciousness.

Kenzie looked at Eddies crumpled body, her eyes like saucers. She looked at Rhino in fear and hatred. He had punched Eddie pretty hard.

"Now, don' worry, little lady. He's fine, I assure you. We need to talk." Shocker said, and stepped toward her. She flinched back away from him, and he stopped.

"Tell your boss," she said bitterly, "To go fuck himself." she ran from Shocker and slid under Rhino's legs before he could grab her. She stood back up and ran from them, hoping they'd leave Eddie be. She found the exit and ran out. Police cars and ambulances were outside, and the police waved for her to come to them. She decided to run away from them too. If she went to them, Shocker and Rhino would follow, not caring who they would hurt. The police called after her, but she kept running.

"Really, they couldn't grab a scrawny little thing like you..." a bored voice said from above her. She looked up to see Vulture gliding just a few feet above, and he reached down with his feet and tried to snatched her up with the metal prongs that were attached to his boots. She ducked before they got her and she quickened her pace. "Your running is useless, you know..." he drawled, and quickly caught up with her.

Kenzie turned a corner and saw a kid practicing swings with a baseball bat. He saw her, then saw Vulture, and froze. Kenzie grabbed the bat from him and turned to face Vulture.

"Swing like this, kid." she said, and swung hard at Vulture, who was too slow to avert his path. She hit him hard in the shoulder, and the metal wing attached to his arm sparked and sent him spiraling away, him shouting and cursing as he went.

Kenzie gave the smiling kid back his bat and began to run again. She found herself running through an elementary school lawn, and hopped a fence into the small playground. She reached the slide and sat down on its end to catch her breath.

"Eddie, please be okay..." she huffed, and she wiped the sweat from her brow. She watched the area, expecting Rhino to crash through the fence or something. Her eyes rested on the sandbox, and she gulped. "Please don't..." she said to it. As a response, the sand began to churn and rise, shaping itself out into the figure of a man. When it finally stopped, Sandman, dressed in striped shirt and blue jeans walked forward, a smile on his face.

"Hey, girly." he said, and his arm extended and shifted into a mallet of sorts. "Come with me either willingly or with a big bump on your pretty head. Your choice." he said. Kenzie smiled weakly at him.

"About that..." she said, and pointed behind him. He turned around, and gasped.

Spiderman stood by the school building, a kinked hose in his hand. He waved to Sandman before unkinking the hose and spraying him down with water. Sandman shrieked, and turned back to sand and mud, then slid painfully away from them and out of sight. Spiderman dropped the hose and ran up to Kenzie.

"You're popular." he said, helping her up.

"Yeah, with the wrong people." she muttered. "Thanks."

"No problem. Why are they after you?" he asked. Kenzie shrugged.

"Their boss wants to talk to me."

"Doc Ock?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"That's helpful."

"Shut up, man." Kenzie began to walk out of the playground. Spiderman caught up to her.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Well, since there are a bunch of goons in costumes after me, then I might as well keep walking until I run into the next one." she said.

"I can just take you out of here."

"Yeah you could. But I'm not going to end up in an aerial battle and risk being dropped." she said, and shivered.

"Where's your boyfriend?" Spiderman asked. Kenzie raised a brow at him.

"Creeper, much?"

"Just observant."

"He was knocked out by Rhino." she said. Spiderman stopped.

"Are you serious?" he asked. Kenzie furrowed her brow.

"Yeah, have you seen Rhino? Eddie's lucky if he doesn't go comatose." she said.

"...right..."

"Shocker said he'd be fine, but..."

"You seem to know all these guys." Spiderman said, catching back up to her.

"I only know one of them."

"Really? Which one?"

"The good Doctor himself..." she said bitterly.

"On what basis?"

"When Otto Octavian still worked in OsCorp, I was starting as a photographer. He shared with me OsCorp's latest achievements and gave full detail as to how everything they created worked. He was a sweet guy..." Kenzie said, and her eyes became sad. "But his sweetness made him out to be a major pushover. He was constantly working because Osborn gave him overtime without pay. Otto didn't mind. He liked to work with all the gadgets, but the bags under his eyes showed he was definitely being worn down.

He was even bullied by some of the employees, and they shoved their work onto him along with his own. Osborn didn't stop them, and even contributed to the jeers sent his way. I don't know why Otto let it happen. He was too meek, I guess. I always told him to stick up for himself, and even punched a scientist when I caught him yelling at Otto just outside the building. Otto thanked me, but I told it should have been him to do it. I lectured him a lot on that subject..." Kenzie stopped talking.

"So, I guess it was pretty bad when you found out he became Doc Ock, huh?" Spiderman asked.

"Yeah, you could say that. He took my advice a bit too seriously and then totally twisted it to fit his persona...Now I hate him."

"I understand-"

"No...you don't..." Kenzie said, and she narrowed her eyes. No one would understand except her and the Doc.

"Please explain." Spiderman said.

"No-"

"Heeeey! You look bored!" Said a snide voice. Kenzie and Spiderman turned around to see Electro standing some feet off from them. His head was a large mass of electricity, as well as his hands. His electric blue eyes were wicked and wide. Electro shot a bolt of electricity at them, and Spiderman pushed Kenzie out of the way. He himself barely missed, and much appreciated his senses for alerting him.

"Hey, sparky, watch where you shoot those things!" he yelled, and shot webbing at Electro's hands, covering them. Electro sneered.

"Tough guy! Makin' a move on Venom's girl. You must be begging to die!" he spat. Spiderman froze.

What?

"Oooh, you didn't know? Well, now you do, haha! " Electro burned the webbing off his hands and sent more electricity after Spiderman. Kenzie sat up, a bit dizzy. Someone grabbed her waist, and she expected it to be Spiderman. She looked up, and jumped.

She was staring into a large glass dome. Mysterio wrapped his cape around her and a cloud of smoke encased them. She inhaled the smoke and her eyes became heavy. She heard Spiderman call her name, but his words faded away.

"You know, the top side to having this protective dome around my head is that knock-out gas won't effect me." Mysterio said to her as he picked her up and ran with her. She coughed.

"F-fuck you, snow-globe..." she muttered, and slipped into unconsciousness.


	11. Recieving Information

"-ake up."

"Nnn, no..." Kenzie muttered in response. She turned over, and fell to the floor.

She woke up.

Laughing followed her fall and she sat up and opened her eyes. Around her were the villains that had pursued her earlier.

"So, that wasn't a nightmare. I really was kidnapped by circus freaks..." she said, and stood up shakily from the floor. She almost fell over again when he bruise shot pain through her. She wondered why she had hardly felt it when she ran from the villains earlier. Perhaps pain really was a figment of the mind, since she hadn't even thought of it while she tried to escape them. Now it hurt like hell, and she tenderly placed a hand over it.

"Hey, we ain't no circus freaks." Rhino said.

"Says the giant talking rhino who hangs out with a vulture, a muddy mess, some electro-maniacs, and a big snow globe ..." she replied, and turned to see she was previously laying on a table. "Why the hell am I here? And where is here?" she asked, looking all over the room. It was filled with computers and lab areas.

"This, young madam," Mysterio said, "is our hideout. The exact location of this place, we cannot share with you, for fear that you may infor-"

"Why are you hiding out at OsCorp?" Kenzie interrupted. The villains froze in their places.

"H-how did you come to that conclusion." Mysterio began. Kenzie waved her hands and fingers mysteriously.

"Magic, yo." she said. Mysterio sputtered at the answer, and took off his dome of a helmet. His thin face looked accusingly at her, and his mustache twitched.

"I think not." he said.

"Oh, are we giving away our identities, to?" Electro asked. The electricity around his head was gone, showing only a mask and goggles.

"You're kidding, right?" Shocker asked, and smacked Electro upside the head. "Everyone knows who we are, ya idiot!"

"Ow! Asshole!" Electro yelled, and punched at Shocker. The two began to fight.

"As always..." Vulture said to Kenzie. "My dear, if ever you should join a villain group, make sure you don't have two people controlling the same element, else there will always be a constant contest to prove who is the better of the two..."

"Yeah...thanks..."

"Bunch of dorks..." Sandman said, and sat down in a chair. He eyed Kenzie suggestively. "Hey, wanna sit on my lap, cutie?" he asked. Kenzie's cheeks went red, and she balled her hands into fists.

"You think..." she stalked up to him and pointed her finger at his face. "You think I would sit on your ugly, grainy lap, you scum-sucking, low-life, perverted, fuck-tard?" she yelled. Shocker and Electro stopped their fighting, and everyone watched Kenzie as she continued her onslaught of insults. Sandman's eyes were wide, and showed a hint of fear as she jabbed her finger at him with every horrid name she gave him. "My boyfriend is a million times the man you are and ever will be, so keep your disgusting, gutter-trash thoughts to yourself or I swear I'll take a fire hydrant to your head!" she finished, and crossed her arms, waiting for an answer.

"Uh...okay..." Sandman said.

"Alright then!" Kenzie said, and held her hand out to shake his. "I'm Kenzie Marks." Sandman looked bewildered at her hand before slowly taking it to shake.

"Flint Marco..." he said.

"Nice ta meetcha, Flint." Kenzie said, and took her hand away.

"Jesus, bipolar much?" Electro murmured. Kenzie shot him a look and he shut up.

"She isn't bipolar, just expressive with all of her emotions." said a voice from above. Everyone looked up to see Doc Ock looking down at them from a railing on the second floor. "At least that is how miss Kenzie had explained it to myself when we were first acquainted." he said in amusement. The four metal arms that protruded from his back reached down to the first floor and carried him to Kenzie's level. He landed on his feet and walked over to Kenzie. He was about an inch shorter than her, and his eyes were covered by black lenses on each side of his face.

"Hello, my dear." he said, his hands clasped behind his back and a smile on his face.

"Sup shorty." Kenzie said, and crossed her arms again. The villains looked warily at Doc Ock to see how he would react. He did nothing, but smile a little wider.

"Joker as always, I see." he said. Kenzie nodded.

"Crazy as always, I trust."

"Can she do that?" Rhino asked Flint, who shrugged.

"This girl is a dear associate of mine, and I expect you to treat her with the utmost respect at all times." he said.

"She like your sister or something? Cuz I've seen your friends, and you don't let them tease you at all." Shocker said.

"She was a friend when I still worked here at OsCorp. She stood up for me and always told me to look out for myself. I finally followed her advice when I acquired these precious extra arms. In a way, she was my inspiration." Otto explained.

"Please don't give credit of your insanity to me. I don't want that reputation, Otto." Kenzie said.

"Of course, you would rather have the reputation of a certain spider's girlfriend." he replied. Kenzie snorted.

"I'm not Spiderman's squeeze, Octavian. You're looking for Mary Jane Watson, not me." she said.

"I'm not talking about Spiderman, Freeman."

"Don't call me that, and what are you talking about?" Kenzie said bitterly. Otto tsked.

"Of course. I didn't think he told you. Come with me, if you would." Otto said, and walked to one of the large computers. Kenzie followed. "I would not be here, of all miserable places, but sadly, this laboratory is the only one besides Connors' that I can use to find what I was previously looking for."

"What is that, I wonder?" Kenzie said. Otto took a vile from his coat and handed it to her. It contained black powder. "Is this the stuff I gave to Connors? You're the one who stole it?"

"I had to, to try and find out more about the character Venom. This sample was perfect, so I took it." Otto pressed a button on the motherboard and an image of Venom popped up on the computer screen.

"What did you find out?" Kenzie asked, staring hatingly at Venom's photo.

"You remember how you reacted when you found your father dead in that motel room?" Otto asked. Kenzie froze, remembering everything. His body. Torn. Scattered. Bloody.

"Why?" she asked in suspicion.

"You remember what you felt?" Otto asked.

"Yes."

"A kind of release, wasn't it, from your father's torment. From his beatings."

"You had no right to kill him-"

"Both know that's truthful, but we both know you wouldn't be the healthy girl you are today. You'd probably be dead, and your father in a prison. Kenzie Freeman. Kenzie Marks. Which do you prefer to be?"

"...Marks..."

"And that is possible because?"

"Of you..."

"Don't beat yourself up, child. You looked out for me, and so I did the same for you, though I admit my methods were unorthodox."

"He was missing for weeks. I found him there because you told me his location. It was such an obvious place. The police never really tried to look for him..."

"No, they didn't. Now, let's speak of the new subject. Once again, it seems I must look out for you." Otto said.

"Why, Otto?"

"The identity of this Venom. I retrieved a feint reading when I tested the material. I was shocked by the results. Someone so otherwise ordinary to be this. I had to be wrong. So, I sent Shocker to retrieve a sample from the suspect. He took some skin particles and blood, and that was more than enough. After running some tests, the results ended with a match. It's quite interesting, I assure you, my dear."

"Who is it?" Kenzie asked. Otto smiled at her and pressed another button. Another screen loaded and two pictures were shown next to each other. On the left was Venom's face. On the right was Eddie Brock's.

Kenzie backed up slowly.

"You're wrong. That can't be him. It's impossible." she said.

"That's what I said to myself after the first test. That man who messed with you at the club the other night was Shocker. He took the second sample."

"So? There has to be a mistake!"

"I'm very rarely wrong with my calculations, and I'm never wrong when it comes to something as simple as a DNA test, Freeman." Otto said. "Edward Brock is Venom."

Kenzie walked to the table in a daze. She sat down in a chair and stared into space, her mind reeling. It certainly explained somethings. His new attitude, his disappearing acts.

The fact that he survived being thrown through the woods and onto that rock weeks ago.

Kenzie felt sick when another realization popped into her mind.

She slept with Venom...

"I'm going to throw up..." she muttered, and hung her head over the side.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Electro said, and laughed. He was smacked again by Shocker, and he went silent when he noticed Otto's glare.

"It will take a moment for what you currently feel to wear off." Otto said.

"Why did you tell me that? Why did you do that?" Kenzie asked, still looking sickly to the floor.

"Simply because I worried for your health. I don't know how this man acts around you, but I know how Venom acts around the city. I have half a mind to recruit him for this little team. He would be an invaluable asset. He may of course refuse me, but either way, he distracts Spiderman from me, and that is all I really need. Though I would like to study him more. He would be a wonderful experimental subject for me."

"No..."

"My dear?"

"He may be a monster but you won't go experimenting on my boyfriend..." she said, and another wave of nausea washed over her. She was it's girlfriend. Gross.

"You protect him, even though you know what he is?" Otto asked.

"Don't ask why, because frankly, I don't know why either."

"You've become much darker since I saw you before I became who I am now."

"I believe I have you to thank for that..." Kenzie said.

"Did I snap something in your brain when you viewed what I did to your father, Freeman, or were you always a tad on the crazy side?"

"Shut up, you bastard." Kenzie spat. "Just...quiet..."

"Alright then." Otto said, and seated himself next to her.

"You are positive that's what it is?" Kenzie asked after a moment of silence.

"Yes." Otto replied.

"So, why was Rhino able to knock him out so easily without him noticing? Does he have a spider-sense whatever?" Kenzie asked. She sat up and looked at Otto, hoping she would still be able to prove Eddie wasn't who he was accused of being.

"Using that sample I took from Connors, I created a type of chemical that will shield our movements from the beasts senses. It temporarily keeps him from noticing us if he cannot see us or hear us. I hoped it would work on the goody-goody wall-crawler, but to no avail. I works only on Venom, and for only a short time. It's like what hunters use when they go into the woods to keep from alerting the deer or what-have-you of their whereabouts. You see?" Otto said. Kenzie nodded, and stood.

"I want to leave." she said. Otto nodded.

"In a moment. I still need to speak with you." he said. Kenzie huffed and sat back down.

"What?"

"About his weaknesses..."

"Yeah, loud sound waves mess him up."

"How did you acquire that information?"

"Spiderman told me after Venom grabbed me that one-" Kenzie stopped herself, and balked. That day, when she was pursued by Venom.

That was Eddie...

Tears formed in her eyes.

"So, um, yeah. I know about that." she said, blinking them back. "Anything else?"

"No, just when you finally join the villainous side of life, know you are always welcome in my troupe. Good day, Miss Marks."

"...yeah..." Kenzie turned around and looked for an exit.

"I'll escort you, Frenzy." Flint said, and walked with her.

"Frenzy?" Kenzie asked.

"It's what me and the fellas decided to call you, after your little episode at me earlier. It seems to fit."

"I'm not a bad guy."

"But you're a buddy now, and buddies need nicknames." Flint said, and showed her the door. Before he opened it, he handed her a small spray bottle. "Here, you might find it useful. It only lasts about an hour." She took the bottle and looked at it.

"What is it?"

"That spray stuff we use to keep Venom off our tails." Flint said. Kenzie nodded.

"Thanks, Marco. I'll have fun with this." she said. He cracked a smile.

"Watcha gonna do?"

"You know how I screamed at you earlier?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Imagine that ten times worse, and with a crowbar." she said. Flint flinched and his smile widened.

"That's why we call you Frenzy. Have fun. Don't get hurt." he said, and opened the door to let her outside at the back of OsCorp. She walked out, and he closed the door again, leaving her alone. She looked down at the spray bottle.

"Don't get hurt...that ship has sailed, Sandman..." she said, and walked toward the street to call a taxi.


	12. Lovers' Spat

Eddie walked into the apartment and slammed the door shut behind him. His eyes were black and his pointed teeth were bared. He would find her. He would teach those fools not to fuck with his things. He walked to the window and opened it wide to look out over the city.

"We'll find her..."

"Eddie..."

Eddie whipped around to see the unexpected intruder, confused as to how they got in in the first place.

It was Kenzie.

He quickly changed his eye color and walked forward and grabbed her shoulders. He searched her face, for any sign of pain or marks they may have left on her. There were none. He sighed and looked into her eyes. They seemed off, but that was expected. Something else that was off was he couldn't catch her scent. It too, had faded like the scents of the others...

"Where did you go? Did the police find you?"

"No...Those guys took me..."

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?"

"Nothing physical, but my mental state is past the point of mending, right now..." she said, and gave a short, manic laugh. Eddie blinked and wrapped his arms around her. She didn't return the gesture. She just stood there until he pulled back again.

"Why don't you sit down. I'll get you a drink or something." he said, and walked towards the kitchen.

"I already got one. I was here before you were, Eddie." Kenzie said, following him. He cast her a glance of slight surprise. He didn't even notice her when he entered.

"Really?" he asked, trying to be reserved.

"Yeah. Why, does that shock you?" Kenzie asked. Eddie shook his head and took a glass from the cupboard. She may have already gotten a drink but he was in deep need for one at the moment.

"Not at all."

"Hmm."

"So, who is it that took you?" he asked before downing an entire glass of water.

"Doc Ock, and the guys in his team."

"Why did they take you."

"I knew Dr. Otto Octavian before he went all crazy. He wanted to talk to me." she said.

"He couldn't just send an invite?" Eddie asked.

"No, that's not flashy enough for him."

"What did you speak about?"

"Oh, the usual." Kenzie said, and walked over to the cabinets. She took to metal pots from it and set them on the table. "Talked about the past, and common worries, and all that."

"What are those for? I don't want you cooking in the state you're in." Eddie said.

"They aren't for cooking..." Kenzie said simply as she stared at them. "Eddie, I've been through a lot of shit with lies and truths today. Can you be truthful with me right now?" she asked. Eddie shifted his weight.

"Of course." he said.

"Why are you always so angry at everything?" she asked. "You used to be so accepting and understanding."

"Uhm..." Eddie rubbed the back of his neck."I kind of lost the ability to do that. I used to take what people threw at me, but I went through...changes...and now I just don't take it anymore. That's all. I used to get angry all the time, but I hid it. Now, all I do is not hide it anymore..."

"Mmm. Good answer. Where do you go when you go out unexpectedly, if you don't go to the lab?" she asked. Eddie shrugged.

"I go to small places. Pubs and things like that. Gotta get out of the house, and it's especially dull when you're not around, so..."

"I see..."

"Kenzie, what's the point of all these questions?" Eddie asked. Kenzie smiled warmly at him and picked the pots up again.

"I just wanted to see if you were lying or telling the truth to me, and I got the expected results." she said.

"Which are?" Eddie asked. He hated being in the dark. If her scent wasn't gone, he would be able to tell what she was thinking in a way. At least know her intentions. He didn't even know if she was lying or telling the truth right now. Her face was too reserved.

And what the hell was with the fucking pots?

"Sadly, Eddie, you lied to me. And now you're going to hurt a lot." she said. Eddie was barely able to register this when Kenzie raised the pots high and clanged them loudly together. Eddie buckled over and covers his ears. Kenzie clanged the pots again, louder, and Eddie shouted in pain. Another clang, and It shrieked as well in pain and anger. Black tendrils began to form over Eddie and Kenzie stopped. Tears welled in her eyes once more as she saw the full proof in front of her.

She dropped one pot and it hit the floor loudly, making Eddie/Venom flinch, his hands still over his ears.

"Liar..." Kenzie said. Eddie looked angrily up at Kenzie. It was over. His entire plan had gone through the window. He growled.

"You shouldn't have done that, Kenzie..." he hissed, and began to stand. Kenzie ran for the door, but a something grabbed her ankle and she tripped and fell before reaching it. Her bruise hurt like hell, but she didn't give it a second thought. She turned over and sat up. What had her ankle was one of the tendrils. Pot still in hand, she smacked the tendril, and it released, giving a small squeal. She looked up and saw Eddie's entire body besides his face had changed to Venom. She backed up and her back hit the door. She reached for the knob, but Eddie sent a shot of web to the handle. It wouldn't turn now, and Kenzie was stuck.

"Dammit..." she whispered, and shut her eyes tight.

"Everything was working out just fine. We were happy, you were happy. But you had to go and fuck it all up..." Eddie said, is voice slightly altered. Kenzie felt herself being picked up by him. The pot was torn from her grip, and she was left dangling in the air by her shoulders. She kept her eyes shut, refusing to look at him. He growled at this, and slammed her against the door. She cried out, but he didn't care at the moment. "Won't you open your eyes, Kenzie?" he asked.

"N-no..."

"Do it, or we'll rip off your eyelids." he hissed. Kenzie trembled, but kept her eyes closed. Instead, she spat in his face. A deep growl informed her that she was in trouble. "There is nothing now keeping us from doing to you what we did to that old bastard, Morris..."

Kenzie's eyes shot open and she stared in horror at his face.

"You...?" she asked. Eddie nodded.

"Problem?" he asked. The tears flowed now from Kenzie's eyes.

"Why?" she asked.

"He was placing his nose in business that wasn't his..."

"So, that made him kill-worthy?"

"You know who we are now, Kenzie. You know we don't care who we kill."

"We?" she asked. Who else was doing what he did?

"Me..." Eddie said, and his face was covered by the face of Venom. The monster's large white eyes glared at her and his tongue lolled out of its mouth of sharp teeth. "And it." it said. "We create Venom..." they said in unison. Venom's voice. Kenzie kicked Venom in the gut, but he just laughed and tossed her into the living room. "Weak as always, Kenzie..."

"Fuck you..." Kenzie said, and sat up again. She wanted to stand, but her bruise and her legs wouldn't allow her. All she could do was sit there and cry.

"Whining, sniveling, weak insect..." Venom said, and changed to Eddie. He walked forward, eyes black. "Why don't you fight back?" he asked, and knelt down next to her. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. She pulled roughly away from him and looked away again. He smiled. "What's wrong, Kenzie? Don't you love me anymore?" he chuckled at this.

Kenzie didn't find that funny. She brought her legs up against her and rested her forehead on her knees. Eddie stopped chuckling and pushed her. She landed on her side on the floor. She stayed there, and didn't move. He tsked and stood back up.

"You're give up way too easily, Kenzie..." he said, and sat on the couch.

"Why am I here?" she asked. Brock looked at her.

"First you were just a pawn, and alibi to say we were here the whole time should the cops find us here." he said. "And then..." he looked at the blank television screen.

"And then I was your toy..." Kenzie said. Eddie nodded.

"Yes, you could say that. A favorite toy for us to play with. Perfect."

"Perfect..." Kenzie said, and hid her face in the carpet.

"You wanted us to be honest. We're being honest." he said. Kenzie didn't reply. She sat back up, and willed herself to stand. Eddie did nothing. There was no way for her to get out, so he didn't bother.

"So...you never loved me...just wondering..." she said. Eddie shrugged.

"We wouldn't go that far. You are merely in our favor. It's why you're alive currently. If you were anyone else you would already be deader than Morris."

"How thoughtful." Kenzie said, and walked to the open window. Eddie turned on the television and rested his feet on the table.

"So, Kenzie, the only question now is where do we go from here?" he asked. Kenzie let the question simmer for just a bit before answering.

"Out..." she said finally. Eddie raised a brow.

"Out as in out on a date? I expected a little more resentment from you." he said. Kenzie shook her head.

"No...I mean out as in out of here..." she said, and jumped out the window. She heard Eddie shout her name as she fell, but she didn't care at the moment. "Hurry up, dude." she muttered, and as soon as she said that, she was caught roughly by a passing force.

"You got a death wish, Kenzie?" Spiderman asked.

"Oooow, fuck! You hit my bruise!" Kenzie shouted.

"Well, if you hadn't just jumped out a window, that wouldn't have happened. Why did you do that again." Kenzie waited a moment before answering.

"I think I just broke up with my boyfriend..." she said. Spiderman scoffed.

"And he threw you out the window?" he asked.

"No, just had to get away from him..."

"That's a bit extreme..."

"You have no idea..." Kenzie said. Spiderman nodded. He definitely had an idea.

A large snarl from behind them alerted him.

"What was that?" he asked. Kenzie looked behind them and her eyes hooded.

"My ex..." she muttered as she watched Venom chase angrily after them. Spiderman huffed. Fucking perfect.

Another snarl, closer this time, and Spiderman brought him and Kenzie up to a roof. He set her down.

"I'm going to need you to refrain from anymore jumping from high places for a while." he said. She nodded, and sat down, her fear of heights returning to her tenfold.

"No problem, dude." she said shakily. After that, Venom leapt onto the roof, making it shake as he landed. He growled and spat at Spiderman. Kenzie looked away from him as his gaze landed on her.

"I'm over here, bro!" Spiderman said. Venom turned back to him and lunged.

"This is no business of yours!"

"I'm pretty sure 'big ugly alien harassing damsel in distress' falls under my jurisdiction." Spiderman said, and they began their fight. Kenzie watched them, flinching every few moments when a particularly hard hit was taken by either of them. Venom found an opening and slammed his elbow into Spiderman's side. He flew and landed next to Kenzie. He sat right up and sighed in agitation.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, my organs are scrambled, but whatever..." he said before jumping back in to fight. After a few moments he landed on Venom's back. "Temper temper, big guy. No wonder she broke up with you." he said, and jumped away before tendrils from Venom's back grabbed him.

"Die, you parasite!" Venom shouted.

"I thought you were technically the parasite, but okay, whatever floats y-"

Before he could finish, Venom grabbed Spiderman, smashed his head into his own, and threw his limp form over the roof. Kenzie's heart stopped when she saw Venom look to her again. He walked up and grabbed her trembling body and jumped off the roof in the opposite direction he sent Spiderman.

"Let me go!" Kenzie shouted, and punched wherever she could.

"Think about your wise words, girl." he hissed. Kenzie looked down, and suddenly latched onto Venom with a vise grip and slammed her eyes shut. They were way higher in the air than she thought...

"Lower, take us _lower_!" she said instead. He didn't listen. Kenzie opened her eyes a little to search for Spiderman, but she didn't see him. Dammit...

After nearly ten minutes of fearing for her life, they finally landed in a wooded area, and he let her go. She fell gratefully to the ground and gripped the grass in her hands.

"Land." she said. Sadly, she was unable to enjoy her time on the ground for long, since she was quickly grabbed by the shoulders and slammed against a tree. Her feet dangled a few inches off the ground as Eddie stared furiously at her. Kenzie gulped. His eyes were so black...

"Don't..." he started, tightening his grip on her shoulders. "Ever. Do that. Again!" he shouted. Kenzie blinked. She was expecting different words, like, 'time to die.', or 'no one will hear your screams.'

"W-what?" she asked dumbly, not understanding his words. Eddie growled and took a deep breath before answering. He looked down to the ground.

"You, like the fucking idiot you are, jumped out a window..." he said, and rested his head on her shoulder. "Don't do that again..." he muttered. Kenzie wanted to rest her head on his for the smallest moment, but she shook her head and snapped out of it. She brought her hands up and shoved him away as hard as she could, and she dropped back to the ground.

He looked at her, seriousness on his face. She pointed an accusing finger at him.

"You!" she yelled. "You, and your bipolar, silly putty shooting, big tongued..._.self_!" she kicked the tree next to her as hard as she could. Her foot hurt, but she ignored it. "First you use me! Then you chase me down that street for fun! I hope that chinese food hurt, you fucking asshole! Then you kill Morris! Then you lie to me! Then you send me all these mixed emotions, insulting me and beating me up one minute, then telling me not to worry you the next! What the fuck is your problem!"

"How did you find out about us..." Eddie asked. He was sitting down and leaning against a tree, calm. Kenzie glared at him.

"Otto! He told me! Not you! _Him_! That's not something I need to be learning about from other people, Brock! I feel like the one kid in class who doesn't get the joke while everyone else laughs like idiots!"

"He knows who I am?" Eddie asked slowly.

"All of 'em know who you are! They tested your web shit and it traced back to you!"

"Who else did he tell?" Eddie asked. Kenzie huffed.

"I don't know! And I'm not talking about that right now!"

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked calmly. She walked up to him and grabbed his jacket. She tried to lift him, but he didn't budge. He smirked. "Spiderman can't even lift me. What makes you think you can?" he said. Kenzie growled and kicked him in the ribs. He looked at her angrily and knocked her legs from under her with one swipe of his hand. She fell to the ground, and he leaned over her. "Don't test me, Kenzie. I'm not in the mood..." he said quietly, his face inches from hers.

"Get off of me." She said, and he did, returning tor resting against the tree. She sat up and glowered at him. "So, what else are you hiding from me? Are you really a brunette? Are you some chick who went through a sex change?" she asked. Eddie smirked again.

"Why are you such a jerk now? Because of that whatever thing?" she asked. Eddie lifted his hand and the tendrils formed in his palm. Kenzie shuddered.

"The symbiote intensifies my emotions. That's why I'm always angry. I don't mind it though. The anger makes me happy..."

"That's nice...why didn't you tell me right away?"she asked.

"Because I knew you wouldn't react well. Besides, you have secrets of your own..." he said accusingly. Kenzie but her lip.

"Yeah, but not one like 'my boyfriend is a giant wad of silly putty that kills people for fun'..." she said.

"I'm going to tell you right now. Stop with the silly putty shit." he said.

"No, I don't think I will."

"I could really hurt you."

"But you won't, since you like me so much. Don't want to break your favorite toy, do you?" she said bitterly, and looked away from him.

"I didn't mean it like that..." he said.

"So, what?" she said.

"You really pissed me off doing that. We still have a headache." he said.

"How bad does that hurt?" she asked.

"Imagine two mallets with spikes on the faces slamming into your ears." he said. Kenzie flinched.

"Ow..."

"Yes. 'Ow'.." he said.

"You deserved it. And you deserve some more."

"Whatever."

"No, not whatever!" Kenzie stood and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You put me through hell! You made me worry constantly about you when there was no need, and you hurt me, and you-"

"I know what I did, Kenzie. I was there." Eddie said. Kenzie narrowed her eyes.

"And now you're just sitting there, twiddling some grass between your fingers, without a care in the world."

"You're safe, so there's no need for me to be jumpy." he said.

"I don't even know what that means!"

"It means, Kenzie, that if you were in danger, half this forest would be torn down while I searched for you." Eddie stood and walked to her, his expression angry. "It means, Kenzie, that I become enraged, and worrisome when your in trouble. It means that only when I'm not being pursued by that bastard in red and blue and you aren't being hauled off by some creeps in costumes or bruised up by idiots, can I actually be 'without a care in the world'. So, let me have this, because very rarely these days can I actually relax..."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but me finding out about all of this does not give you reason to relax..." she said to him, and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

"To get shitfaced. I might be able to kill enough brain cells to make me forget about all of this fucked up shit I'm going through currently." she said.

"If you're looking for a pub the city is in the opposite direction your going..."

Kenzie stopped, then spun around. She walked again, and little more angrily.

"Smart-ass..." she muttered when she passed him. He turned and fell into step next to her.

"So, what now?" he asked.

"After drinking a poisonous amount of alcohol, I'm buying a shit ton of wind chimes for my room." she answered.

"So you'll be staying with me, then?" Eddie asked, surprised.

"I gave up my apartment, so I have no fucking choice..."

"Point for me..."

"No, you have no points. You have negative points. In fact, you owe the point bank so many points that you have to hide under a bridge so the collectors can't find you." she said.

"Alright, then. So where does this put us?" he asked. Kenzie glanced at him. He was looking straight forward, wearing a poker face.

"I don't know." she said, still glancing at him. His face fell just the smallest bit, barely noticeable, but she saw it. "Does that make you uneasy?" she asked.

"Will you be reporting me, then?" he asked, changing the subject. She sniffed.

"Dunno. Do you plan on maiming me anytime soon?"

"Depends."

"Then that'll be my answer to." she replied. Eddie growled slightly in agitation.

"This is going to be hell..."

"Goddamned better believe it."

...

A/N: Aloha! I'm back with this story finally. (yay) Thank you, It0Takes0Skills0To0Be0Me, for kicking my ass back into gear. ;D Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you for your reviews.


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